Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - HOLDOUT OVER! Shemar Stewart agrees to contract | Bonus Episode

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

Shemar Stewart has finally agreed to terms with the Cincinnati Bengals and will imminently report for training camp. Jake Liscow and James Rapien break it down in a bonus episode as the Bengals got their default language in the deal, and Stewart got a little bit more up-front money to sweeten the pot. Spilt milk is spilt milk, but at least we can put this behind us as Stewart begins practicing soon.Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Yahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Play Now at yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnflRugiet150,000 men have made the switch →https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONNFLUse code LOCKEDONNFL to get 15% off your order!BetterhelpThis episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. Your well-being is worth it. Visit BetterHelp.com/lockedonnfl today to get 10% off your first month. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get $150 in BONUS BETS when your first $5 BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Samar Stewart has finally agreed to terms with Cincinnati Bengals. Let's break down what got the deal over the finish line. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And I say episode, but I really mean bonus podcast, emergency podcast, whatever you want to call it, after the Bengals practiced on Friday.

After James and I, James Rapine, Jake Liskow, your host of Lockdown Bengals, recorded our post-practice show on Friday. Shmar Stewart reportedly agrees to terms. Welcome back to the everydayers. Welcome back to all of you who don't miss an episode of Lockdown Bengals. You can hit that subscribe button to make sure you don't miss an episode. James and I've been doing this for a long time now. So if you're looking for a consistent place to find news analysis, everything going

on with your Cincinnati Bengals. You're in the right place. $500,000, James, gets this deal over the finish line. The Bengals get the language they're looking for. Shamar Stewart and Zach Hiller, his agent, get a small. And I want to emphasize small from my perspective, concession from the Bengals to get the deal done. But more importantly, and most importantly, we can put this behind us and look forward to seeing Shamar Stewart on the practice field. I think that's my first reaction is fans, all right, now it's time to give Shamar Stewart a chance, put the business side aside, and no matter what you think, because I get it. And I'm not saying I necessarily agree or disagree with this, but there are plenty of fans

that are just completely out on Shamar, and it's because of his camp, right? And it's because of how they handled this. And it's going to be because of when we break down the small little concession that Bengals made to get this over the finish line. And over the past few weeks, especially, I've really tried to chat with NFL folks, to see, like, should this be a holdup? The answer is no. The default language shouldn't have been a hold up that forced him to hold out. And I think his camp realized it. I think they came to that realization during the day on Friday. And maybe we're starting to come to it sooner than that. But the bottom line is, and the good news is, is that Chamar Stewart should be

on the field Sunday, is that Chamar Stewart should sign his deal on Saturday. I'm sure he's flying, they're making the arrangements. Maybe he's already in the area, but if not, flying from Texas to Cincinnati to sign the deal, to dot the eyes, cross the T's, and boom, get on the field for the first time. It's not just three days of training camp practice. He didn't do any on-field drills throughout the offseason program. So he needs to play catch up. And it's 722 Eastern as we record this on Friday night, Jake, at like 1222 or so this afternoon, I was talking to a Bengals veteran. And that was like, yeah, he needs to be here. And it needs to get done. And it's crazy. And I think that was the vibe across the entire league. So for this to finally hit home with Shamar's camp and for them to

realize, hey, let's get this done. Let's get into camp. Let's agree, by the way, and sign a four-year, $18.97 million contract that is fully guaranteed. This was never about the money. This was never about the money, Jake. I know you know that, but just to emphasize it for anyone that isn't aware, the money is set, it's slotted. And now Shamar Stewart has agreed to be a very, very rich man, even if it's a little later than everybody expected. Yeah, the money that was eventually I guess hypothetically argued about and what the Bengals made a concession on was the timing of the signing bonus, which we've talked about. The Bengals typically do a 50-50 split for the signing bonus payout. It's all going to get paid to Shamar Stewart in this calendar year, but they would pay 50%

at signing and another 50% typically what they do with Versaunt picks in December, according to Ian Rappaport's suite. We've seen different reports around the timing of those payouts. Rappapaport said December. That's why I'm saying December right now. Instead, he's going to get like 55% of the signing bonus when he signs and 45% in December. Now, I would understand asking for a concession that's maybe like, we'll sign this. Give us 80 up front and 20% later. We're still talking about six months here. So for both sides, this is relatively immaterial, the timing of the signing bonus payout between now and December. This is. I don't even know what to compare it to.

It's so insignificant to me from the outside looking in. But when you say it's only over $500,000 out of a $10.2 something million signing bonus, it's just hard for me to fathom this being the reason that Shamar Stewart missed all the time that he's missed, time on tasks that he's missed. I think it's going to go down as one of the sillier holdouts. When we look back on this, it already feels that way. It's already felt that way. that anything is going to change the way that I view that.

I think that this feels a lot like saving face, the $500,000 concession for the Samar Stewart camp on this. And I'm going to say not the player here. I think the player wanted to be there, wanted to get into camp and start practicing. And to get that over the finish line, it's $500,000. I can't recall any other examples in history where the argument's been over. such a small amount of money, if that's indeed what it was. I don't know that the Bengals had been asked for additional signing bonus money up front.

We don't know if those conversations happened before they finally agreed to terms. If they did and the Bengals balked at $500,000 a month ago or whenever a month and a half ago, they should have absolutely done that then. And that would be 100% on the Bengals side if they didn't do that and that's all the ask was. But we don't know what the ask was. we don't know how it went down. The way it looks to me, outside looking in, it looks like Shamar's camp just said, okay, we're going to do this.

We want to get the player in practice. Give us a little bit of something to say that we got a compromise because that's how they're presenting it is. They got a compromise here from the Bengals to get Shamar Stewart and get that deal done. Yeah, we do know what the ask was. Take out the default language. It's why Shamar Stewart left camp early. It's why he said the, you're more worried about winning arguments than games,

all of those things. By the way, he said that. Why? Well, I'm sure. Can you imagine what was said in his camp, if that's what he was saying to us? And I agree with you. I think, I think Shamar thought he was doing the right thing. And the right thing might have been to just, like, if they had been quiet during this process,

then it would have been like, oh, well, maybe you just get the Bengals to blink. But the moment it went public, the moment everyone found out about the default language, the moment all this, the Bengals were never blinking. Never. I talked to someone on Monday when Mike Brown made his comments. and I could say this now. I didn't want to stir it up more than I needed to. He's like, oh, they're not taking out that language.

That will not happen. Like, it doesn't matter. That will not happen. And the person was like, you think Mike Brown's going to blink now? And I was like, I never said, you know, it was one of those. And they weren't. And so I think that Shamar's side of it was like, yeah, you're right. Let's salvage it somehow.

but to your point with how loud everything was and how dug in one side felt a $500,000 paid now versus a few months from now and it's always going to get paid is ridiculous. You know, it's such a small, tiny, minuscule thing. And it was because the Bengals had completely, they were not blinking. They were going to just say, okay, fine, okay, fine. And it was just, it was building more and more steam behind the scenes of how ridiculous that camp looked for holding out and in telling their player because he just thinks he's doing the right thing, right? I get which fine, but it wasn't the right thing and it was hurting him. And I think that's what I want to come back to here is this is the best thing for Shamar.

He gets in there. He can work with his teammates. He can go up against Amarius and Orlando every day. And Jake, the other thing I was looking at the preseason. schedule. 13 days from now is the first preseason game. So he's going to get a full week of practice this week and then hopefully another half week or so.

So he should get and be able to be ready for some preseason snaps, which is huge. For everything that was lost, we should see Shamar Stewart in preseason game number one, which is great. More than anything, let's hope he hits the ground running. Let's hope he's in shape. They need him, obviously. And if he is able to play up to it. as athletic traits and just be disruptive and force his way into that rotation really quickly,

right, and be something they don't have from an approach perspective, from a rarity of athleticism perspective, all the reasons of Bengals drafted him. No matter what you thought about him as a prospect, the reasons that Bengals drafted him is because they saw these traits in Sharmar Stewart. They saw the potential in Shemar Stewart. So him being able to get into practice and start working with the defense, working within the structure of the defense, working with those coaches. Yeah, it's overdue. And that sucks. It's ridiculous that it went as long as it did. I don't think anyone's arguing about that. But at this point, all you can do is look forward. And that's getting as ready as you can, improving as much as you can

in the time you have available to you throughout the preseason and getting the work in. And excited to see him out there. Hopefully he's practicing on Sunday. That'll be be my first practice with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2025. I won't be participating in the practice. I'll be participating with the media. It'll be potentially Samar's first practice too. So you know what? My bad. Everybody, he was waiting for me. He wanted me to see him in person. It's my fault. That's what it turns out to be. That's all it is. That's all it is. Real quick, one more thing before we get out of here, Dan Hoare tweeting this, and I thought it was really cool. So Jerry Montgomery, obviously a big Shamar Stewart fan. And you mentioned it, all the reasons the

Bengals drafted him. This quote of Jerry Montgomery saying that Shamar was one of the best players in this year's draft, quote, I'm saying top five, Montgomery said. He was the most explosive player in the draft. So regardless of what you think, that's how excited at least some people in the Bengals organization are. And I think a lot of the Bengals organization is to have Shamar Stewart on the team on the roster. So this is a really, really good day, Jake, let's go for Shamar and certainly the Cincinnati Bengals. Glad to put this a bit behind us. The only thing left from a drama perspective now, Trey Hendrickson,

and of course, the national reporters taking the angle that, well, now that this is done, the Bengals can focus all of their effort and attention on Trey. We'll see how that plays out. On Sunday when you're here, they can sign you to a deal, so you practice. I'll sign up to be Jeff Hobson's backup. Let's do it. Let's wrap up there. We'll see how things progress with Noah Fant,

taking that visit down in New Orleans, with Trey Hendrickson. over the next few days. Again, I'm waiting for the moves to happen while I'm on a plane. I'm flying to Cincinnati shortly, had to get the mic out of the luggage here so we could record. So we're ready for that. But until next time, this has been a bonus episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Thanks for listening.

Ho day and have a good one. Jake wants that fully guaranteed money.