With coaching camp days away, the Cincinnati Bengals don’t appear near getting a contract finished with first-round choose Shemar Stewart. The truth is, the defensive finish appears nearer to a return to school than enjoying within the NFL. In keeping with Cowl 3 podcaster Bud Elliott, Stewart has been spending the offseason coaching at Texas A&M, the college he simply left for the draft.
Per Sports activities Illustrated’s Bengals web site.
“He’s been at School Station,” Elliott stated. “He’s been totally concerned in exercises. He may attempt to come again and play once more this season and go into the draft once more subsequent yr.”
Elliott notes such a transfer isn’t allowed by the NCAA. As soon as the January deadline for underclassmen to declare and withdraw passes, they’ll’t double again to the school sport. However most of the NCAA’s guidelines and procedures have been challenged lately and the NIL facet of school soccer blurs the road between newbie and professional. If Stewart and a few attorneys are up for the combat, they may push a courtroom system to permit a participant in Stewart’s sneakers to return to the school sport.
After all, the mere truth Stewart is working towards at his alma mater isn’t a assure he’s eyeing a return to it. Gamers want someplace to observe throughout this lull between minicamps and coaching camps and returning to his faculty campus is uncommon however not essentially the most outlandish concept.
That that is even a dialogue stems from a chronic contract stall between Stewart and the crew. The Bengals are trying to incorporate a clause in his deal that might void future cash beneath sure circumstances regardless of the very fact first-round offers are presupposed to be totally assured. Different NFL groups have the identical clause however till this yr, Cincinnati had by no means tried to insert it into one in every of its contracts. Stewart’s company doesn’t wish to be the primary to make the leap and has drawn a line towards it. Declining to signal an damage waiver customary for unsigned draft picks, Stewart missed all of rookie minicamp, OTAs, and necessary minicamp.
Ugly and weird because the state of affairs is, the percentages are nonetheless towards Stewart making an attempt to play for Texas A&M once more a lot much less truly pulling it off. Sooner or later, Cincinnati and Stewart’s camp will come to an settlement and get him signed. From there, he’ll be enjoying catch as much as make an affect in his rookie yr for a Bengals go rush that has many questions, together with a separate contract dispute between the crew and star go rusher Trey Hendrickson.
