The quasi-extinction of the Recruit Holouves of the NFL and why could Shemar Stewart be an exception?

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With the choice of the first round of the Bengals of Cincinnati, Shemar Stewart publicly expressing his dissatisfaction with contractual negotiations, then leaving the MINICAMP compulsory on Thursday for his unconted agreement, a rare tail of a recruit contract seems to be preparing for Cincinnati.

Of course, the history of Bengals in this department is at stake – Star Edge Rusher Trey Hendrickson is in a confrontation of contract extension with the organization, while Ja’marr Chase and Tee Higgins have resolved previous litigation. However, recruit contract problems have been particularly rare events since the introduction of the recruit salary scale in 2011.

From this year’s collective negotiations, the salaries of the recruits have been set in a pre -established remuneration scale. The value of these contracts varies according to the moment when a player is selected in the project, and all the recruits written are signed for four -year transactions (the teams have a fifth year option on the first round).

Essentially, the salary scale has given up negotiations and retained on recruit contracts, as was the case two years earlier with the choice n ° 10 of the San Francisco 49ers Michael Crabtree, who missed the training camp and the first month of the regular season according to the conviction that he should have been paid as a higher choice of recovery.

But even with a salary scale in place, there have been aberrant values.

The defensive winger Joey Bosa the dispute with the loaders of Diego then-San is perhaps the most notable in the era of the post-young salary scale. Bosa was selected with choice n ° 3 by the loads in 2016, but did not remain signed for more than a month after it was planned to present itself to the team on July 29, which would be due to the compensated language and the calendar of its signature bonus. Shortly after signing his contract, Bosa injured his hamstrings and missed the first four games, although he won the defensive recruit of the year and was a bowler player five times with the charge.

In 2018, the second recruit of Chicago Bears, Roquan Smith, missed the first two pre-season games and 16 training sessions in the middle of a place of conservation of the contract. This dispute was focused on a new rule penalizing players who used their helmets to launch a blow. Smith, selected with choice n ° 8 of Georgia, finally signed a contract that protected his guaranteed money if it were to be suspended by the League for an illegal helmet stroke.

Stewart is one of the four recruits of the first round in 2025 which have not yet signed their recruit contracts – the choice n ° 2 of the Jacksonville Travis Hunter jaguars and the choice n ° 20 n ° 20 of the Denver Broncos are the others. There are not many reasons for alarm ringtone in these cases, because many recruits do not sign closer to training camps, although a large majority of second round choices also seem to be lagging behind this year.

The Houston Texans signed the recruit recruit Jayden Higgins at the first fully guaranteed contract for a second round choice last month. Shortly after, the Cleveland Browns have signed the second round Schwesinger’s second round to a fully guaranteed agreement. Schwesinger and Higgins were the first and second choice of the second round, respectively, and since then, no other second round choice has signed his recruit contract, by Spotrac, perhaps in the hope of following the new previous one.

But the hostility of Stewart and Bengals is a unique circumstance. The estimated value for Stewart, selected at No. 17, is $ 18.94 million, according to estimates from the recruited wages of Spotrac.

“I’m right 100%,” said Stewart earlier this week. “I do not ask that you have never done before. But in your case, you all want to win an argument instead of winning more games.”
What makes the situation of Stewart different?

The central part of the problem between Stewart and the Bengals lives in a sentence concerning what is happening with money guaranteed if Stewart is lacking on the contract. A version of the default language exists in each first -round contract.

In this case, the language used by Bengals in 2023 for the choice of first round Myles Murphy concerning the clause was different from what they used in 2024 for Amarius Mims (who signed his recruit contract on July 22, 2024). They are trying to change it again this time for Stewart, the main discord point.

The default language they are trying to use is common among the NFL teams. For reference, they offered Stewart the same language as the choice before (Walter Nolen of Arizona Cardinals) and after (Gray Zabel de Seattle Seahawks), according to a league source. Bengals generally structure guarantees differently from the majority of the rest of the league, which counts in terms of comparison of their language to other teams that use it.

The biggest difference between Stewart and the rest of the first round choices was his refusal to sign the renunciation of practice. Each of the other incoming incoming choices this week had practiced despite not having a completed contract. The derogation protected them against any injury. Stewart did not and choose to sit instead. – Paul Dehner Jr., Cincinnati Bengals Senior writer