Is Shemar holding out?

[CJD]

(8 hours ago)Nately120 Wrote: AGENT: Surely you aren't willing to risk wasting a year of Burrow's prime over something this small!

MB:  I am. And don't call me Shirley. 

Realistically:

MB: Surely, you aren't advising your client to throw away their career over something this small!

The truth is Stewart needs the Bengals way more than the Bengals need Stewart. Would the team be worse off if he isn't on the team? By a bit, perhaps. He is a bad pass rusher and a rather large project (not sure why we're drafting projects in the first round during our Super Bowl window). He will likely be a decent run stopper early on, but may not be much more than that in his rookie year. But the Bengals go without their first round pick all the time. Dax basically didn't play in his rookie year. Jonah Williams was injured his entire rookie season. Myles Murphy was injured and then ineffective in his rookie year. So the 2025 Cincinnati Bengals are probably not too heavily affected if Stewart doesn't sign with the Bengals.

But Stewart? Oh man. He would be throwing away MILLIONS of dollars if he didn't sign with the Bengals. He was a first round pick this year, which means he is guaranteed around 19 million dollars over the next 4 years. If he refuses to sign with the Bengals, goes and works out for the year, and then re-enters the draft in 2026, he would not be drafted at #17 overall again.

Let's say he falls to a 3rd round pick, which I believe is a very optimistic outcome considering other teams have the same language regarding voids in their contracts and team owners have a tendency to stick together when it comes to contract language (see the recent scandal surrounding guarantees in contracts and collusion from the team owners). I think he could potentially go undrafted if he tried to re-enter the NFL, depending on how other team owners felt about the whole situation.

Regardless, Darius Alexander was the first pick in the 2025 3rd round. He signed a 4 year 6.7 million dollar contract. That is over 12 million dollars that Stewart stands to lose if he does not sign with the Bengals.

It simply cannot happen. It would be malpractice of the highest degree for this agent to recommend his client not sign his contract. The very idea is so stupid, I can't believe people are even willing to talk about it.

Stewart was drafted by the Bengals. He will sign with the Bengals. His leverage is virtually zero. He just needs to stop listening to this moronic agent of his and sign his God damn contract.