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The Bengals and first-round Edge Shemar Stewart finally agreed to contract terms Friday. Stewart -- the 17th pick in the draft -- will get a four-year, fully guaranteed deal worth $18.97 million in total, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Stewart's reportedly getting "a more lucrative payout structure" than guys who went 17th overall before, in return for agreeing to the team's void language should he screw up.
Team president Mike Brown: "I guess if he did something that really deserved punishment that he would want the whole contract guaranteed and we would want to say, 'Well, it isn't guaranteed if you did something to that level. In that case, we would step in and take away the guarantee. Doesn't mean that we couldn't agree to pay it, but we wouldn't be forced to pay it. I don't want to pay somebody who hypothetically could be in jail for four years at this level of pay."
It's nice that we can move on from the contract kerfuffle and focus on Stewart's actual football outlook.
I've mentioned before -- more than once -- that I'm skeptical of that on-field future. Stewart wowed at the Combine (as predicted), including a 95th-percentile speed score for the position, 96th-percentile vertical, and 98th-percentile broad jump.
So if he's supremely athletic and sized like a first-round NFL edge, then why didn't the guy post more than 1.5 sacks or 6 tackles for loss in any of his three Texas A&M seasons?
It wasn't for lack of opportunity. Stewart played more than 300 snaps in each of those seasons. He did grade out strong in run defense in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus. But we need a lot more than that for our IDP lineups.
Stewart remains a player I'm not interested in across fantasy formats. Now we'll see whether he can prove me wrong.
Joseph Ossai and Myles Murphy opened camp as the edge starters while Stewart and Trey Hendrickson worked out contract issues. I wouldn't bet on Stewart quickly displacing either guy, and he's probably not a good bet for starter-level playing time at any point this year.
We'll see exactly how the rotation works out, though ... and when (if?) Hendrickson returns.
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