Shemar Stewart's holdout from the Cincinnati Bengals ended Friday evening as the 17th overall pick agreed to his four-year, $18.9 million contract, all of which is fully guaranteed.
Getting the deal done required Stewart and his agent, Zac Hiller, to accept default language the Bengals wanted to start using in their contracts, which was the whole sticking point to the holdout.
Stewart's camp initially refused to agree to the language on account that it differed from past contracts Cincinnati's first-round picks signed. The language defines scenarios in which guaranteed money can be voided.
Stewart withheld from practicing with Cincinnati throughout the entirety of the offseason workout program and the first three practices of training camp. This was because he also didn't sign the Rookie Participation Agreement due to language issues on that front as well. During mandatory minicamp, he declared he was "100% right" in not wanting to agree to the language.
"I'm not asking for nothing y'all have never done before," Stewart said in June. "But in y'all case, y'all just want to win arguments (more) than winning more games."
So what changed? Per multiple reports, Stewart agreed to the language in exchange for $500,000 of his signing bonus being paid up front.
The Bengals have traditionally paid out signing bonuses in a 50-50 manner; half of it paid out immediately, and the other half paid at the end of the year.
So let's use some simple math here. Stewart's signing bonus is $10.4 million. He was set to earn $5.2 million upon signing, and $5.2 million in December. Now he'll earn $5.7 million now and $4.7 million later.
Which brings us to the question of the night: Was this really worth holding out for three months? Calling out the organization for everyone to hear? Missing the start of camp and being the second-to-last draft pick to agree to terms?
It doesn't seem like it.
Stewart's holdout ending looks like a big loss for his side
This entire squabble was over language that Stewart ended up agreeing to anyways, and all he got out of it was just under 5% more of his signing bonus hitting his bank account about four months earlier than it would've anyways.
It became a national story that took up most of the offseason, with outlets running with information coming from his side of the story. When the Bengals finally spoke on the situation this week, Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin made it clear Hiller was the crux of the problem.
"I don't blame Shemar," Tobin said Monday. "He's listening to the advice he's paying for. I don't understand the advice, I don't agree with it. I'm not the one paying for it. But that's where it is. If I thought we were treating him unfairly it would be a different story, but we're treating him fairly with all the rest of draft picks in this year's draft."
Five days later, Hiller and Stewart essentially caved for a price less than 3% of his total contract.
In defense of Hiller, getting the Bengals to accelerate some of Stewart's signing bonus money was always the play, and the club should've been willing to move on that front long before its first-round pick could've missed any training camp practice time.
But still, just $500,000? Not even a million? The entire holdout looks extremely silly now.
Cincinnati has now firmly established new precedent and hardly had to concede anything to get it done. Stewart's prior convictions have been bought for a few hundred thousand dollars, and this entire mess has been put to bed.
Stewart still has to put pen-to-paper, but he's got a full day before the Bengals' next training camp practice Sunday morning. The road to making up lost time starts when he steps on the field, contract troubles officially in the rearview mirror for at least a few years.
Cincinnati will savor the time until then.
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