Bengals fail to sign Shemar Stewart before rookies report

Holdouts often are couched in terms of the player wanting more, with the not-so-subtle suggestion that they want too much. They’re holding out, for more.

It’s often more accurate to say they’re standing firm for what they deserve, and that the team is being unreasonable. That it’s not about the player putting the squeeze on the team, but the team putting the squeeze on the player. When that happens, the team has failed.

That’s what the Bengals have done. For reasons neither known nor apparent (other than “they wanted to”), the Bengals have changed the default language in their contracts to extend the consequences of voided guarantees to the balance of the deal. It’s a new term, and this year’s rookies are the Cincinnati guinea pigs.

First-round edge rusher Shemar Stewart has refused to accept the new language without a fair concession. The Bengals refuse to make one. Their attitude has been “take it or leave it” (or, more bluntly, “shut up and play”). Stewart has left it, and he has not shut up.

He’s now officially not with the team for his first training camp. The Bengals have failed to get a deal done. And they’ve shown no inclination to bend.

Although the Bengals are cheap, this one isn’t about money. It’s about power. It’s about who’s in charge. “We are, you’re not.”

The Bengals are also stubborn. They’ll expect Stewart to cave. Maybe he will.

Or maybe he won’t. Maybe he’ll try to play college football. Maybe he’ll sit out the year and re-enter the draft.

The problem is that the Bengals don’t sufficiently care about working something out. They want Stewart to surrender.

They’re prioritizing that power over winning. If they truly cared about winning, they’d come up with a win-win that would get Stewart in camp and get him ready to help the Bengals not stumble out of the gates.

Again.

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