Bengals’ brass, agent sling barbs over first-rounder’s holdout

Only one NFL first-round pick is starving his team of a signing celebration, and the Bengals’ brass was more than willing to dish thoughts on the “foolish” position of Texas A&M defensive end Shemar Stewart at the Cincinnati media luncheon on Monday.
Stewart, drafted 17th overall in April, refuses to agree to any contract stipulation that allows the Bengals to reduce guaranteed pay for “contract detrimental to football.”
Stewart said the Bengals “want to win an argument instead of winning more games” and declared he was “100 percent right” because of the team precedent in eliminating the detrimental language tied to financial guarantees.
“We’ve been here for a long time,” Bengals president Mike Brown said Monday at the team luncheon, “it’s never happened. And that’s holding up this contract. From our vantage point, it’s a form of foolishness. It just ought to get done.”
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said the Bengals don’t “blame Shemar for taking the advice he’s paying for,” pointing the finger at agent Zac Hiller for prodding the defensive end to hold out.
Hiller didn’t need time to gather his thoughts on Monday before responding in an interview with Pro Football Talk.
“Duke Tobin has had no involvement in this negotiation,” Hiller told Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “It seems to be above his pay grade.”
Brown insisted the Bengals don’t want players who would be involved in the type of conduct that could jeopardize a contract.
“If we get a player that gets involved in something like that, or does something that is just unacceptable, then guess what? I don’t want to pay him,” Brown said Monday.
“We say that if he got involved in conduct detrimental, we’d have the right to terminate the guaranteed part of the back years. His agent says, ‘Oh, no, you can terminate the guaranteed part only for the remaining part of the year in which the event occurred.’ Oddly, something like this has never occurred in my memory with us. I don’t think it’s gonna occur. So, we’re sitting here arguing over something that I think is pretty remote.”
NFL first-round draft picks are all but locked into a four-year contract with a percentage of the player pool allotment dictating the overall value. Stewart’s four-year, $18.94 million deal will include a fifth-year team option.
The Bengals’ front office is also working through a separate holdout issue with pass rusher Trey Hendrickson. The NFL sacks leader with 17.5 last season is entering the final year of his contract.
“I hope Shemar comes in. He needs to be here,” Tobin said.