The Bengals and first-round edge rusher Shemar Stewart continue to be at odds. Now that training camp is open, both sides should be feeling a little extra urgency.
The team is. But instead of negotiating with Stewart, they’re trying to get him to cry uncle.
On Monday, Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin lamented the fact that Stewart has yet to take the team’s take-it-or-leave-it offer of esoteric contract language relating to the voiding of guarantees. In so doing, Tobin took aim at Stewart’s agent, Zac Hiller.
“I don’t blame Shemar,” Tobin said, via Jaron May of WLWT. “He’s listening to the advice he’s paying for. I don’t understand the advice. . . . We’re treating him fairly.”
In response, Hiller said this via phone: “Duke Tobin has had no involvement in this negotiation. It seems to be above his pay grade.”
Frankly, Tobin isn’t the one who should be commenting on the negotiations, if he’s not the one handling them. And is it really a surprise that a guy who works for the Bengals would defend the Bengals’ position?
In a nutshell, the Bengals want Stewart to accept more restrictive language regarding the voiding of guarantees than the team used for past draft picks and, more recently, for receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. But the Bengals have yet to offer Stewart any sort of concession to even things out.
It’s a power play, plain and simple. A “shut up and play” move. And now they’re trying to drive a wedge between Stewart and his agent.
All they need to do is find a way to offer Stewart something else to offset the unilateral change in contract language. But they’re too stubborn to do that.
In the end, it’s about sending messages. We have the power. And you don’t.
