Is Shemar holding out?

[*ochocincos*]

(06-20-2025, 05:44 PM)ERIC1 Wrote: I am just happy that we have an NFL football team...and a MLB baseball team..The deficiences in the way the Bengals were run for so many years stood out and criticism of Mike Brown was indeed warranted..But things have changed dramatically the past few years..for the better....and...I think that if the team stays healthy..its gonna be a good year

I think they can if certain things happen aside from health.
We're depending on a lot of young guys to take the next step to backfill veterans who have departed in past couple years.
Guys like Kris Jenkins, McKinnley Jackson, Myles Murphy, Dax Hill, DJ Turner.
And hope some of the rookies come along quickly, mainly Stewart, Knight, and Fairchild.
And last, hope the defense takes to Golden's scheme quickly so that it's not like last year where team is scoring 25+ points and still lose like they did 6 times last year.
The offense should do well, it's all the changes on defense I am nervous about.

[Soonerpeace]

(Yesterday, 09:45 AM)ochocincos Wrote: I think they can if certain things happen aside from health.
We're depending on a lot of young guys to take the next step to backfill veterans who have departed in past couple years.
Guys like Kris Jenkins, McKinnley Jackson, Myles Murphy, Dax Hill, DJ Turner.
And hope some of the rookies come along quickly, mainly Stewart, Knight, and Fairchild.
And last, hope the defense takes to Golden's scheme quickly so that it's not like last year where team is scoring 25+ points and still lose like they did 6 times last year.
The offense should do well, it's all the changes on defense I am nervous about.

Exactly my thoughts. Exactly. Several things have me excited. The WR. I think Joe has finally gained some confidence in Gesicki & Isovias. Joe has his guys large contracts. A second year with Gesicki looms large. Isovias’ ascension looms large. Chase Brown can really be fast. I think Fairchild & Patrick are an improvement in pass protection. Mims won’t be a rookie. The offense could be the most dynamic in the league.

[*bengalfan74*]

(Yesterday, 10:50 AM)Soonerpeace Wrote: Exactly my thoughts. Exactly. Several things have me excited. The WR. I think Joe has finally gained some confidence in Gesicki & Isovias. Joe has his guys large contracts. A second year with Gesicki looms large. Isovias’ ascension looms large. Chase Brown can really be fast. I think Fairchild & Patrick are an improvement in pass protection. Mims won’t be a rookie. The offense could be the most dynamic in the league.

yup

Like most of us it's the defense that gives me great concern!! With just a couple of exceptions they're relying on a lot of yet unproven guys and rookies to be major players on D. Not exactly a formula for success.

Lets hope they get the Trey and Stewart deals done ASAP.

[ERIC1]

(Yesterday, 09:45 AM)ochocincos Wrote: I think they can if certain things happen aside from health.
We're depending on a lot of young guys to take the next step to backfill veterans who have departed in past couple years.
Guys like Kris Jenkins, McKinnley Jackson, Myles Murphy, Dax Hill, DJ Turner.
And hope some of the rookies come along quickly, mainly Stewart, Knight, and Fairchild.
And last, hope the defense takes to Golden's scheme quickly so that it's not like last year where team is scoring 25+ points and still lose like they did 6 times last year.
The offense should do well, it's all the changes on defense I am nervous about.

As time progresses most teams depend upon their " young players" to progress...for the most part...those young players on defense looked much better the 2nd half of last season

[ERIC1]

(Yesterday, 12:13 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: yup

Like most of us it's the defense that gives me great concern!! With just a couple of exceptions they're relying on a lot of yet unproven guys and rookies to be major players on D. Not exactly a formula for success.

Lets hope they get the Trey and Stewart deals done ASAP.

I sorta wonder if people were not watching the second half of last season..for the most part...not completely...defense played much better and the players you speak to were playing progressively better each game

[ERIC1]

(06-21-2025, 10:44 PM)Soonerpeace Wrote: Not in ‘24  we lost like 7 one score games. We should have made the playoffs 

Yes..in 2024...those were the outstanding injuries and we lost those close games most likely because of said injuries

[Soonerpeace]

(Yesterday, 12:23 PM)ERIC1 Wrote: Yes..in 2024...those were the outstanding injuries and we lost those close games most likely because of said injuries

NE lost 16-10. That’s not on the defense or Tee not playing. 10 points?
KC lost 26-25 no criticism here
Wash lost 38-33 . That was on the defense
Balt lost 41-38 in OT it was on the defense
Lost to Philly 37-17 . They were SB Champs
Lost to Baltimore 35-34 no criticism there except defense
Lost 34-27 to Chargers again the defense.
Lost 44-38 to Pitt again that’s on the defense.
The bottom line is we lost too many of those close games. At some point you can’t make excuses.

[*bengalfan74*]

(Yesterday, 12:19 PM)ERIC1 Wrote: I sorta wonder if people were not watching the second half of last season..for the most part...not completely...defense played much better and the players you speak to were playing progressively better each game

I sorta wonder if people were not paying attention to who we were playing those last 5 games when our D finally started getting some stops?

Cowboys - 7-10 playing with backup QB's as starters

Titans  3-14 just awful team

Browns  3-14 same as above

Broncos  10 -7 but a rookie QB and they nearly beat us

Steelers  10 - 7  with a broken R. Wilson whos season was over 5 games ago

Or in other words the teams we were playing and circumstances involved were very favorable to us. So I'm not filled with confidence they can keep that level of play up against better teams this coming season. I hope they do.........but......

[*ochocincos*]

(Yesterday, 01:18 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I sorta wonder if people were not paying attention to who we were playing those last 5 games when our D finally started getting some stops?

Cowboys - 7-10 playing with backup QB's as starters

Titans  3-14 just awful team

Browns  3-14 same as above

Broncos  10 -7 but a rookie QB and they nearly beat us

Steelers  10 - 7  with a broken R. Wilson whos season was over 5 games ago

Or in other words the teams we were playing and circumstances involved were very favorable to us. So I'm not filled with confidence they can keep that level of play up against better teams this coming season. I hope they do.........but......

Not only that, the 5-6 games after Thanksgiving are not a large enough sample size to give some (me) strong enough confidence that all the defensive young guys are going to be able to perform like that or better for an entire season.
Maybe it's Volson jading me, but we saw players like him come on toward the end of a season only to regress back the following season, rinse and repeat.
We need the defense to be mostly consistent from Game 1 to Game 17.
Coming on toward the end of the year typically results in middle-of-the-pack seeding.
I want division-leading, possibly even conference-leading performance out of the Bengals.
I know the offense is capable, but there are too many unknowns on the defense to give me confidence yet.

[NUGDUKWE]

Zac Hiller, the agent for Shemar Stewart, was on SiriusXM today with Solomon Wilcots and Christian Fauria.

Hiller: “Obviously my job, and all agents’ job, is to protect the players. Simply put, Shemar would, of course, love for his contract to be as protective as the rest of…

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) June 23, 2025

This is what is have originally heard as the hold up. Which in my opinion makes the Bengals look bad. Seems fair enough that if they want to change precedent then they should be willing to bend in other parts of the contract. I heard just the timing of signing bonus payout. So shouldve been an easy deal from the beginning.

[*bfine32*]

(Yesterday, 01:18 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I sorta wonder if people were not paying attention to who we were playing those last 5 games when our D finally started getting some stops?

Cowboys - 7-10 playing with backup QB's as starters

Titans  3-14 just awful team

Browns  3-14 same as above

Broncos  10 -7 but a rookie QB and they nearly beat us

Steelers  10 - 7  with a broken R. Wilson whos season was over 5 games ago

Or in other words the teams we were playing and circumstances involved were very favorable to us. So I'm not filled with confidence they can keep that level of play up against better teams this coming season. I hope they do.........but......

I'll perhaps look at the rest later, but just to add some context to your context.

The 2 week2 before we played Dallas, they beat a playoff Team (WAS) by putting up 34 points and put up 27 on devision for NYG

The 2 weeks after we beat Dallas, they beat Carolina 30-14 and a another playoff Team (TBB) 26-24

In between those 2, we held them to 20 points and beat them 27-20. So in 5 weeks they went 4-1

So it's easy to dismiss them as playing backups until you look a little closer. 

[ERIC1]

(Yesterday, 01:18 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I sorta wonder if people were not paying attention to who we were playing those last 5 games when our D finally started getting some stops?

Cowboys - 7-10 playing with backup QB's as starters

Titans  3-14 just awful team

Browns  3-14 same as above

Broncos  10 -7 but a rookie QB and they nearly beat us

Steelers  10 - 7  with a broken R. Wilson whos season was over 5 games ago

Or in other words the teams we were playing and circumstances involved were very favorable to us. So I'm not filled with confidence they can keep that level of play up against better teams this coming season. I hope they do.........but......

If the team stays healthy..it will be a good year

[Soonerpeace]

(Yesterday, 12:19 PM)ERIC1 Wrote: I sorta wonder if people were not watching the second half of last season..for the most part...not completely...defense played much better and the players you speak to were playing progressively better each game

If the defense was playing much better Lou would not have been fired.

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(Yesterday, 06:05 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote:

Zac Hiller, the agent for Shemar Stewart, was on SiriusXM today with Solomon Wilcots and Christian Fauria.

Hiller: “Obviously my job, and all agents’ job, is to protect the players. Simply put, Shemar would, of course, love for his contract to be as protective as the rest of…

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) June 23, 2025

This is what is have originally heard as the hold up. Which in my opinion makes the Bengals look bad. Seems fair enough that if they want to change precedent then they should be willing to bend in other parts of the contract. I heard just the timing of signing bonus payout. So shouldve been an easy deal from the beginning.

It really doesn't. Maybe a little bit, but this makes the agent look greedy and uncompromising (in a bad way).

It's not a good look for either side, but it's like 85/15 on the part of the agent.

[NUGDUKWE]

(2 hours ago)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: It really doesn't. Maybe a little bit, but this makes the agent look greedy and uncompromising (in a bad way).

It's not a good look for either side, but it's like 85/15 on the part of the agent.

Im not rooting for the agent over the FO. Just merely trying to look at it from an outside perspective. Not sure how this makes the agent look bad. Bengals want to change theyre precedent which is fine. They are just asking to give something in return. Seems fair to me. 
Perhaps I blame the Bengals FO a bit more here just for the fact this seems like an extremely easy fix yet we've let it drag on where he is almost the last to sign, he made some poor comments to the media and he was the only 1st rd rookie who hasn't done any practice work. 

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(2 hours ago)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: It really doesn't. Maybe a little bit, but this makes the agent look greedy and uncompromising (in a bad way).

It's not a good look for either side, but it's like 85/15 on the part of the agent.

Agree, like 20 other teams have had this clause in their rookie contracts for years. The moment the Bengals do it for the first time everybody
jumps on them and acts like they are the worst FO of all time because Shemar was told by his agent not to sign. We can hate on the Bengals
FO but we also have to try and not be biased. I admit it though, I am biased against the agents that don't get the players they represent playing
football for the team that drafted them.

Same with being biased against Trey's dumbass agent.

But Ja'Marr's got his and Tee's deals done so that agent is excluded and doing things the right way in my eyes.

(53 minutes ago)NUGDUKWE Wrote: Im not rooting for the agent over the FO. Just merely trying to look at it from an outside perspective. Not sure how this makes the agent look bad. Bengals want to change theyre precedent which is fine. They are just asking to give something in return. Seems fair to me. 
Perhaps I blame the Bengals FO a bit more here just for the fact this seems like an extremely easy fix yet we've let it drag on where he is almost the last to sign, he made some poor comments to the media and he was the only 1st rd rookie who hasn't done any practice work. 

Travis Hunter has been practicing while not being signed. That is a football player. Shemar has let me down listening to his agent and not 
practicing. I was one of the few that was behind the pick and now I am not so sure.

[jj22]

No matter who looks bad for wanting the language or fighting against it, once pick 16 and 18 signed with the same language the argument was over.

[jj22]

(37 minutes ago)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Travis Hunter has been practicing while not being signed. That is a football player. Shemar has let me down listening to his agent and not 
practicing. I was one of the few that was behind the pick and now I am not so sure.

So has Knight (unless I missed him signing).

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(33 minutes ago)jj22 Wrote: No matter who looks bad for wanting the language or fighting against it, once pick 16 and 18 signed with the same language the argument was over.

Agree. It is on Shemar and his agent no question now.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(31 minutes ago)jj22 Wrote: So has Knight (unless I missed him signing).

Haven't seen if Knight signed yet either, but yeah, he has been practicing like a true football player as well.