The Cincinnati Bengals are one of two teams that have yet to sign their 2025 first-round pick to a contract. The Denver Broncos still haven’t signed University of Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron, the 20th-overall pick. And, of course, the Bengals are at quite the impasse with the 17th-overall selection, Texas A&M edge rusher Shemar Stewart.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has taken a look at the lack of a participation agreement with Stewart, which would have allowed him to participate in OTAs and minicamp without the fear of injury.
“In theory, a participation agreement gives the player financial protection against an injury suffered while taking part in the offseason program,” Florio writes. “The goal is to give the player the same deal he would have gotten, if he hadn’t been injured.
“PFT has compared the Bengals’ participation agreement with the language used by another team. There are very real differences.
“For example, Cincinnati’s agreement applies if the player “sustains a disabling NFL football-related injury.” At least one other team removes the phrase “disabling,” which introduces ambiguity and (potentially) an avenue for the team lawyering their way out of the deal.
“The Bengals’ agreement also doesn’t contain a clear commitment to give Stewart a contract commensurate with being the 17th overall pick in the draft. The other team’s expressly says that the terms “shall be commensurate” with the player’s slot.”
The Bengals are making this much more difficult than it needs to be
Is anyone surprised by any of this? The Bengals almost enjoy shooting themselves in the foot when they can. Less than a month ago, Stewart’s agency responded to a journalist on X who mistakenly (although the point was the same) said that Stewart was drafted No. 18 and that last year’s first rounder Armarius Mims was No. 17.
“Other way around,” the agency said. “Shemar is the higher pick at 17.. they want his contract different even though he is the higher pick.. last year they picked 18.. even more reason.”
The bottom line is that it looks bad when things are so frustrating that your agency is discussing these things publicly. So, not only can they not get Stewart signed, they can’t even hammer out an agreeable participation agreement.
“Also, the other team’s deal has a paragraph that explains the purpose of the agreement: To provide financial protection for an injury resulting from participation in the offseason program, and to put him in approximately the same financial position he would have been in, but for the injury,” Florio continues when comparing the Bengals’ language to another teams’.
“Frankly, no player should ever sign a participation agreement,” he writes. “If the team wants the player to behave like an employee, the team should make the player an employee by signing him to a contract.
“In Stewart’s case, a participation agreement that would have more clearly promised to give him the financial package he would have gotten without the injury would have gotten him on the field for the offseason program — and it would have deferred the thornier issue of working out final contract language until training camp.”
It’s the same contractual language the Bengals used in the past
For whatever reason, the Bengals have decided to dig their heels in and start doing things a different way. Considering the team’s situation on defense (a bad defense with its best defender holding out and Stewart not with the team), you’d think that now wouldn’t be a great time to turn over a new leaf.
“As to the contract language, Stewart has asked for the same default language used in the contract signed last year by tackle Amarius Mims, who was taken with the 18th overall pick,” Florio writes. “That’s relevant to the participation agreement because, as it relates to the participation agreement, Stewart was told (we’re told) that it wouldn’t be fair to use different language from the language in Mims’s participation agreement.
“If that logic is good enough for the participation agreement, it should be good enough for the contract, too. But the Bengals won’t use the same default language as to guaranteed money for Stewart as they used for Mims.”
It’s tough to see people criticize QB Joe Burrow for anything with regards to the state of the Bengals, yet people do. The standoff with Stewart is just another glaring example of how incredible it is that this team went to a Super Bowl in recent memory.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post NFL Insider Says Cincinnati Bengals’ Draft Pick Doesn’t Have Participation Agreement appeared first on Heavy Sports.