Why Shemar Stewart Is Doing the Rare NFL Rookie Holdout

Bengals defensive end Shemar Stewart is in a contract standoff with the team. 

The No. 17 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Stewart has yet to sign his rookie deal over a contract language dispute. He’s yet to practice with the team, but has been present at offseason workouts and has studied the playbook. 

NFL veterans hold out regularly, but rookie holdouts have become uncommon. Prior to 2011, rookies held out with some regularity. That changed with the 2010 collective bargaining agreement, which introduced a rookie wage scale with slotted contracts for draft picks. First-round picks are given four-year deals with preset salaries and signing bonuses based on where they’re selected. Stewart’s slot pays $3.4 million his rookie season and $18.9 million over four years, according to Spotrac.

The Bengals already have one defensive lineman protesting his contract situation as  Trey Hendrickson—the NFL’s sacks leader in 2024—wants a new deal as he enters the last year of his current one. 

Here’s a look at Stewart’s holdout: 

What is Stewart unhappy about?

The Bengals “are trying to change the language in the contract for their first-round pick that allows the team to void future guarantees,” according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. The negotiating tactic is an attempt for the Bengals to “set a new precedent” with rookie contracts, the Enquirer reported. 

The 6-foot-5 edge rusher believes his contract shouldn’t have such voids because the team hasn’t included them in the deals of recent first-round picks including Myles Murphy and Amarious Mims. 

“I’m not asking for nothing [the Bengals] have never done before,” Stewart told reporters Tuesday. “But in y’all case, y’all just want to win arguments [more] than winning more games.”

What are Stewart’s options? 

Stewart has a handful of options with his current situation. He can request a trade.. The deadline to trade an unsigned draft pick expires 30 days before “the first game of the regular season,” according to the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, which would be August 5. After that day, he can’t be traded by the Bengals during the 2025 season, regardless of whether he’s signed or not. 

He could also wait to sign until the Tuesday after Week 10, which would be in mid-November and be eligible for the final seven games of the regular season. Should he be unsigned past that date, he is ineligible for the rest of the season  “absent a showing to the Impartial Arbitrator of extreme Club or extreme personal hardship.” The term “extreme hardship” lacks a formal definition in the league’s CBA, which leaves Stewart’s situation open to the interpretation of an arbitrator.

If Stewart signs with another pro football league, like the UFL, the Bengals hold his rights for the next three years. He wouldn’t be able to re-enter the draft unless he refuses to sign at all until the 2026 draft begins. If that occurred, any team but the Bengals could take him. 

State of the Bengals

The Bengals are a notoriously frugal franchise. Stewart isn’t the only defensive lineman not present at minicamp as Hendrickson, 30, is holding out for a new deal after compiling 35 sacks combined over the past two seasons. 

On offense, the team recently made wide receivers Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase the highest paid duo in NFL history, a move that required public backing from quarterback Joe Burrow, who led the team to Super Bowl LVI in 2022. 

The Bengals went 9–8 in 2024, the same record it had in 2023. The franchise hasn’t been back to the playoffs since losing to the Chiefs in the AFC championship game after the 2022 season.