Shemar Stewart's standoff with the Bengals will not lead to a 2026 NFL Draft do-over

Several people in the sports landscape, including NFL expert Mike Florio, have floated the possibility of Shemar Stewart re-entering the NFL Draft. While it may seem like a viable option for the rookie, it also sounds preposterous. Exactly how ludicrous would that be?

Stewart does not want to sign his NFL contract based on language that would leave the door open to the possible cancellation of future guaranteed money left on his contract if he runs afoul of what the Bengals want or expect from him.

The issue for Stewart and his representatives is that the team did not put this language into the contracts of the past two first-round picks, Myles Murphy and Amarius Mims. 

For the Bengals, they are doing what the fans, players, and national media want them to do. They are catching up with the times. 

The 16th and 18th overall picks of this year’s draft signed their contracts with the particular language that Stewart and his representatives are opposed to. Yes, any other time, figuring this situation out should be easy. But this is the Bengals, so they are this offseason's punching bag.

This contract dispute is not about the Bengals being cheap, which is the low-hanging fruit around this conversation. The Bengals are “catching up with the times,” that everyone claims they want this cheap organization to do. That is, until they don’t. 

Re-enter the draft?

Stewart could sit out the 2025 season and re-enter the draft next year. Something that only happened once, with Bo Jackson skipping the 1986 season to play baseball after getting drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He would go on to be drafted by the Raiders the following year. 

He won’t, but Stewart should re-enter the draft just on principle. It would be an excellent case study to see how teams would react to such a bold move.

Stewart could treat it like a COVID-year when college players sat out. It hasn’t seemed to have any ill effects on Ja’Marr Chase and his career. 

It won’t happen, but after Stewart talked a big game, now he can back it up with a brash move. 

He’ll be back

Stewart left the mandatory minicamp without a contract. But don’t count on the defensive end resorting to re-entering the draft next year. The risk is too significant for several reasons. 

The on-field scrutiny will begin again. Sixteen teams passed on Stewart in the draft. With a year out of football, at least 16 teams would do the same next season.

Teams and scouts who did not have enough time to watch every snap from him could be turned off by his lack of production in general and pass rush against Texas tight end Gunnar Helm in one-on-one situations in particular.

And for as much as we here in Bengals Nation point out his disruption and pressures, teams could analyze those numbers more closely and see that his 39 pressures are similar to Vernon Broughton’s 32 pressures. The big difference is that Broughton is a defensive tackle who gets his pressures up the middle. Also, Broughton’s four sacks in 2024 equaled Stewart’s career total of four. And, Broughton was drafted in the third round, 71st overall, whereas Stewart was 17th overall. 

A re-analysis of his play on the field, combined with NFL teams reacting negatively to players raging against the system, would mean a slide down the draft would be in the works. 

Re-entering the draft would also mean getting to his second contract a year later. If he is everything that he and the Bengals expect him to be, getting to his third year when he can negotiate an extension should be paramount.

Reaching his third year is especially important if he plays for the Bengals, because they’re cheap, according to everyone. Or the Dallas Cowboys, because apparently, Jerry Jones can pay, or not pay his star players, any time he wants, without the “cheap” label applying. Only the good stuff for the Cowboys’ owner.

Then there is the obvious risk of Stewart getting drafted by the Cardinals, Seahawks, or any of the other teams that use the standard language in their contracts that he is opposed to today. What would he do then? Sit out another year? Give up any leverage he has to whatever team drafts him next year? Or would he willingly sign the language that he does not intend to now, based simply on the team wouldn't be the Bengals?

Stewart will not sit out the year to re-enter the draft again in 2026. And if he doesn’t sign until late into training camp, or even after the start of the season, he has the Bengals organization as a built-in excuse for any time missed and a possible slow start to his NFL career. 

Maybe the Bengals organization is good for something after all—a meat shield.