Will Former #Aggies Pass Rusher Shemar Stewart Return to College Station?

Former Aggies defensive end Shemar Stewart did not report to training camp with the rest of the Cincinnati Bengals’ rookies on Saturday. He is the lone first-round pick in this year’s draft class who has not signed his rookie deal. Stewart, the 17th overall pick out of Texas A&M, did not participate in any of the offseason workouts because of a contract dispute over the language that could potentially void the guaranteed money in his deal.

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[Music] What is up Texas&M Agies fans? It’s your friend Indie Cart here with the Texas&M Aggies Daily Blitz right here on Fanstream Sports Dallas coming at you with some Samar Stewart stuff. And know he’s not an Aggie anymore. Well, once an Aggie, always an Aggie. He doesn’t play for the Aggies anymore. Uh and he may not be playing anywhere in 2025. uh as let’s get into it right here on FanSream Sports Dallas and the Aggies Daily Blitz. Um of course Samar Stewart the number 17 overall pick in this year’s NFL draft by the lowly Cincinnati Bengals. Why do I say the lowly Cincinnati Bengals? To them they’ve been to a Super Bowl recently. Their offense is amazing. They got a bunch of LSU guys over there. Um yeah, the offense is great. Their defense sucks. Joe Burrow had maybe a I mean it was it was an MVP caliber season last year. The team finishes nine and eight thanks to a completely inept defense. They can’t get out of their own way and they were hoping to improve on that dramatically this year through the draft, maybe through some free agent stuff, but leave it to the Cincinnati Bengals. The Cincinnati Bengals might be the new Cleveland Browns. I’m telling you. Um to keep it in state up there. But they do they drafted Samar Stewart of course to to improve their pass rush because really you had Trey Hendrickson was it last year and him getting double and triple teamed at times. They just got very little pass rush uh from anybody except for Hendrickson. Uh so Stuart was supposed to solve that. Um however, funny thing happened on the way to Bengals training camp. Uh Shamar Stewart did not participate in any of the offseason workouts for the Bengals because of a contract dispute. And it’s not because of the annual payout or anything like that because that’s all set by the collective baring agreement now for the rookies, which is nice. You don’t have guys, you don’t really have rookies holding out for more money. But Stewart does not like some of the contract language that could potentially void the guaranteed money in his deal. So, it’s still kind of about money. uh which according if if you read if you’ve read up enough on this like I have look I I’m not an attorney I didn’t read the contract uh I am going based on what I have read from people way smarter than me about stuff like this uh but apparently the language that is in it is not normal NFL contract language although from what I’ve read is that other teams have attempted this whatever whatever it is uh and have failed. And now the Bengals don’t normally use the language that they did in Stuart’s contract. And he and his people didn’t like it. And from what I understand by all of those people way smarter than me, Stewart will eventually win this because the Bengals are are trying to pull a fast one, trying to save a buck. Uh, and the best way to summarize the dispute is that he has So, Stuart, in in your rookie deal, you have a number of uh, I guess goals in your rookie deal that will help guarantee money on on the on the contract. The Bengals are trying to to to put in language to where uh, rather than if you reach certain deals, you’re guaranteed this much money. you reach this this goal, you make this much money. You you you guarantee this much money if you reach this goal. The Bengals are trying to word it in such a way that unless Stewart reaches all of those goals, he gets zero guaranteed money. So, there’s not levels of it anymore. And this is not something the NFL teams normally do. They give you different incentives to make some guaranteed bonus. And the Bengals are trying to save themselves a buck or two. And rightfully so, Stuart, he didn’t practice in the mini camps because there’s an injury caliber obviously here. If if he’s practicing and he’s not under contract, uh, you know, you’re you’re done. You’re out. Now, the Bengals don’t even have to let you sign the contract if you they’re lost for the year and they don’t have to pay you. So, that in kind of a nutshell is is where we’re at with Shamar Stewart and the Cincinnati Bengals. Now, what does all of this mean? Well, this means, of course, because um Shamar Stewart declared for the NFL draft after his junior season, he could potentially have an eligible or be eligible for another year per NCAA rules. And if he does not sign his rookie deal, he won’t play for the Bengals. And he can do whatever he wants. if he wants to go back to school and play for the Aggies, he can come back to College Station and he can play for the Aggies. Now, yes, I understand Mike Elco was very adamant on Sports Center this week that Samar Stewart has no intentions of returning to college to play for the Aaggies. I mean, it would be kind of silly. Again, there’s the injury potential there. Um, and you wouldn’t want to, you know, he doesn’t want to put his pro career in danger just for the sake of playing another year at&m. It’s a whole reason you come out of school a year early, right? Because you want to go pro. Uh, but there is a bigger situation here for the NFL than the Cincinnati Bengals. There is a precedent that could be that could be made here that could affect future drafts, future first round picks, and that is when you go back to preNIL days, first round draft picks, second round draft picks, third round, what, whoever, these guys coming out of school were broke. They were poor for the most part. And they would do anything and everything to sign that rookie deal as fast as they could to get some money, right? For instance, Shamar Stewart is due for his rookie deal because of where he was drafted. It’s a almost $10.5 million signing bonus for a broke kid coming out of college. It’s pretty attractive, right? So, Leap, you know what? I’ll I’ll just sign it. We’ll we’ll deal with the rest later. I need I need the money. I want the money. In this day of NIL, that’s not the case anymore. Stuart made millions of dollars in college. He doesn’t have to play this year. uh he’d be just fine sitting out. Will he come back to school? No, that’s not going to happen. That would be a dumb move on his part. As much as we would like to see it, we’d like to add him back to the defense, but it it would be a completely dumb move on his part. Um but what will happen to Shamar Stewart? Couple of things could happen. He they can come to an agreement. The Bengals could change the wording in his contract. He could sign this off season. He makes it to training camp or the preseason, whenever that happen, he has a great first year as a rookie pass rusher in Cincinnati. Or this thing could come to an impass like we are now and he could decide, you know what, not just do I not want to play for the Bengals this year, I don’t ever want to play for the Bengals. that bridge has been burned and he can just sit out the entire season and go back into the 2026 draft and be drafted by any team in the NFL other than the Bengals. Um, Cincinnati doesn’t want that because they’ve now they would have given up their first round pick and they got nothing for it this year. There’s no compensation by the NFL for that either, by the way. No compensatory picks, no nothing. you lose you lose your guy and you are not allowed to draft him again in the following year. Um, again, he does smart Stewart doesn’t have to play this year. He’s got plenty of money. He could sit out a year, go roll all that right back into 2026, work out hard this year, go back to the combine, or probably not next year. Now, he has until week 10 to sign his deal. We don’t have to wait the entire season to see what’s going to happen. If week 10 comes and goes and he still has not signed his deal with the Bengals, then he ain’t playing for the Bengals. There is a deadline. So, that’s where we we’re at with Shamar Stewart. How far will this thing go? I don’t know. What precedents will it set? I don’t know. Uh but it is an interesting situation for for an Aggie great and for the NFL in general. and it’s our little Shamar Stewart that’s behind all of it. So, it is what it is. Um, so that’s where we’re at with Shamar Stewart. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Find me across any social media, Indie Cartim, or if you watch the uh video right here on FanSrports Dallas on our YouTube channel. Leave me a comment. I’d love to hear from you. See what your thoughts are. Should he just stay out of out of Cincinnati and go back into the draft next year? That’s kind of where I’m at on this right now. Screw it. Screw you, Bengals. You did this to yourself. You’re going to lose your first round pick and you’re losing a hell of a player in Jamar Stewart. But where are you? Let me hear from you. I’d love to find out what your thoughts are. I’m Indie Car. We’ll be back with another Aggies daily blitz as we are enjoying the offseason. Get into some Aggies spring, get into some Aggies off season, some roster, all that good stuff for you next time on the Aggies Daily Blitz right here on Fan Stream Sports. Until next time, boys and girls, we’ll see you.