On the Cover 3 Podcast, CBS Sports’ Bud Elliot reported that 2025 first-round pick Shemar Stewart has been participating in team workouts with his former college program, the Texas A&M Aggies. According to Elliot, Stewart believes there’s a path for him to return to the college level even after being selected by the Cincinnati Bengals.
Stewart, notably, is holding out in Cincinnati over default language that the Bengals want him to sign, which would void all the guarantees in his contract if he ever ran into a legal matter. It’s also worth noting here that the Bengals are known for playing hardball with their players, most recently with pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, who is essentially renegotiating his contract on a year-to-year basis because Cincinnati won’t tear up his deal and give him a new multi-year extension.
The Bengals did not ask for this default language in Amarius Mims’ contract last year, their 2024 first-round pick. Stewart was also picked earlier in April’s draft than Mims was last season.
This default language could be a reaction to the season that their third-round pick, Jermaine Burton, had in 2024. Burton, who once slapped a woman on the field after Alabama’s loss at Tennessee, was seen gambling in a casino while on a road trip against the Las Vegas Raiders — a game where he missed the Saturday walkthrough, was evicted from apartments twice in two months and was involved in a domestic dispute, according to a police report filed in January.
It’s not rare for teams to use this default language in the NFL, but rookie contract players often only have one year of guarantees voided, the year in which an incident occurred, rather than all of the guarantees in the entire contract. Deals that include this void language also usually come with a more substantial signing bonus, money on the front end, which is reportedly not something the Bengals have budged on.
In Stewart’s case, I’m sure he’s asking a couple of questions:
“What does Burton’s situation have to do with me, a player without a legal history?”
“Why is the Bengals’ push for default language starting with me?”
“If I let the Bengals win here, will I have to deal with their hardballing for the next decade?”
On paper, it’s the perfect storm for a first-round pick to test his case at retaining his college eligibility, despite having already signed with an NFL agent. Whether or not he’ll be able to win his case is unknown, but the NCAA has been taking many losses in court over the last decade — including a recent ruling that seasons spent in junior college do not count against a player’s NCAA eligibility, as the NCAA does not oversee the sport at that level.
There’s plenty of money in college football, and it’s finally being shared with the players, so going back might not be as rash a decision as it once was. For example, former Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers reportedly was offered $8 million to transfer to another team in 2025, but instead elected to declare for the NFL draft. He wound up being picked in the seventh round by the Miami Dolphins, where he’s currently the third-string quarterback on the roster bubble, and signed a four-year, $4.3 million ($1.1 million APY) contract with just $131,576 guaranteed.
If Stewart kicks open the door for declarations to be able to return to school, I’m sure the Ewerses of the world would like another crack at college football, too. Hell, that junior college ruling was spearheaded by Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, whose NCAA eligibility would have run out had it not been for the courts. Pavia, 24, is returning to Vanderbilt for his sixth season of college football and has stated that he was offered more than $4 million to transfer to another team. For perspective, that’s pretty equal to the first-year cash flow of a second-round rookie.
In the MLB, high school players can get drafted and then are still free to join college programs. In the NBA, players can declare for the draft from the college level and return to their teams before the draft. This isn’t exactly a one-to-one comparison, but the NFL might have just found someone to test the sanctity of the draft. Not since Bo Jackson went first overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1986, a team he never suited up for, has the draft really been stressed like this.
The NFL Players’ Association has also recently taken up the cause of labor at the college level, as the union, along with the NHLPA, NBPA, MLSPA, and MLBPA, released a joint statement this week opposing the SCORE Act legislation that would grant college sports antitrust exemptions.
Per NFL rules, the Bengals would receive no compensation for Stewart not signing with their team if they can’t get a deal done this year. Stewart is free to enter the 2026 draft and would be eligible to be picked by any team other than Cincinnati. Per the collective bargaining agreement, Stewart’s rights can be traded to another NFL team until August 5th. At that point, Stewart either plays with the Bengals or doesn’t play in the NFL at all in 2025. Stewart can wait to sign his deal until Week 11, but if he doesn’t sign by then, he won’t be allowed to line up in the league this year.
Stay tuned, as Bengals rookies are scheduled to report to training camp on July 18th.