Seeing per Schefter on X they finally agreed to terms.

Fully guaranteed

15 minutes ago, spicoli said:

Fully guaranteed

With the defaults

As previously mentioned, the tweet

6 hours ago, sparky151 said:

Does anyone think Stewart is closer to signing today than yesterday, before the Raiders voided a lot of guaranteed money for Wilkins?

Lololol

22 minutes ago, IKOTA said:

Lololol

Yeah, that didn't age well.

The Bengals finally agreed to give Stewart something minor in exchange for the default language they wanted. Should have done it a week ago but perhaps the Wilkins situation sobered them up.

1 hour ago, sparky151 said:

Yeah, that didn't age well.

The Bengals finally agreed to give Stewart something minor in exchange for the default language they wanted. Should have done it a week ago but perhaps the Wilkins situation sobered them up.

Or his agent finally accepted less $ than he had been pushing for in exchange. It’s pretty easy to speculate. But this board is very aware of what you’d always assume.

In the end, Stewart wound up accepting the default language the Bengals wanted. This whole thing was amateur hour but I’m glad it’s finally done.

16 hours ago, sparky151 said:

Mike Brown claimed on Monday that the team needed their default language so they didn't have to pay someone who was in jail. The league already had that covered so he was just blowing smoke.

In the Wilkins case, he hasn't been arrested or anything like that. It's a question of medical treatment. He broke his foot in a game last year, had surgery, and apparently isn't fully recovered yet. The team wanted him to have another surgery and it looks like he got advice from elsewhere to let it heal on its own. Players have an absolute right per the CBA to choose their own doctor and take advice from whomever they want, rather than the team doctor. Wilkins is expected to visit other teams, who will no doubt examine his scans and give him a physical. We'll see if he plays in the NFL this season or not but I'd bet he will be signed somewhere this season.

As it relates to Stewart, it would be an example of a team taking away money that was contractually guaranteed without the player doing anything wrong. You can bet other players around the league will start spelling out in more detail when defaults occur and Stewart's agent isn't going to give the team much leeway. A year ago the Raiders were celebrating signing Wilkins, this offseason they get a new coach and GM and suddenly Wilkins is old news and cast aside.

Mike Brown gave an example of why he would not want to pay on future guarantees. I am sure that it is not the only one.

Regarding Wilkins case, did he follow the procedures laid out in the CBA? (note - we do not have any way of knowing that)

From Article 39, Section 6 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement: “A player will have the opportunity to obtain a second medical opinion. As a condition of the Club’s responsibility for the costs of medical services rendered by the physician furnishing the second opinion, such physician must be board-certified in his field of medical expertise; in addition, (a) the player must consult with the Club physician in advance concerning the other physician; and (b) the Club physician must be furnished promptly with a report concerning the diagnosis, examination and course of treatment recommended by the other physician. A player shall have the right to follow the reasonable medical advice given to him by his second opinion physician with respect to diagnosis of injury, surgical and treatment decisions, and rehabilitation and treatment protocol, but only after consulting with the Club physician and giving due consideration to his recommendations.”

The Raiders released this comment:

"We have decided that it is in the best interests of the organization to move on from Christian Wilkins and he has been informed of his release from the team. This franchise has a commitment to excellence on and off the field. With no clear path or plan for future return to play from Christian, this transaction is necessary for the entire organization to move forward and prepare for the new season."

It sounds to me like he failed to follow the rules of the CBA with regards to consulting with the club's physician regarding his rehab plan (part b from above). If that turns out to be true, then he will lose his appeal via the NFLPA. The team's claim is that he failed to keep himself physically able to play football. A similar thing can be pointed to with the morality clause stuff regarding bad behavior - just look at Watson's contract in Cleveland.

Regarding Stewart's acceptance of the contract, it's silly to say anything other than his side was being foolish and they know it. Moving $500k worth of his $10.4M signing bonus forward from December until now was not what did it. His agent was a complete fool, was called out publicly by the team and fans, and had obviously lost the PR battle. He thought he was going to publicly bully the Bengals to take the contract language out of the deal. That was entirely the wrong approach - quietly, behind closed doors like Mims agent did last year had a chance. In the end, the $500k was a nice gift from the Bengal's FO to let him tuck tail, save a little bit of his dignity and move on. That's it.

I personally am glad he's now signed and can get to work on the field. I hope he has a HoF career for the Bengals. I am also glad the team was able to protect themselves with the contract language but I hope they never have a need to use it.

1 hour ago, Inigo Montoya said:

In the end, Stewart wound up accepting the default language the Bengals wanted. This whole thing was amateur hour but I’m glad it’s finally done.

In the end, the Bengalis ended up making concessions to get the new language added. This whole thing was amateur hour but I’m glad it’s finally done.

I'd take him great dt. Supposedly the raiders wanted him to have surgery and he declined

3 hours ago, BBR said:

Regarding Stewart's acceptance of the contract, it's silly to say anything other than his side was being foolish and they know it. Moving $500k worth of his $10.4M signing bonus forward from December until now was not what did it. His agent was a complete fool, was called out publicly by the team and fans, and had obviously lost the PR battle. He thought he was going to publicly bully the Bengals to take the contract language out of the deal. That was entirely the wrong approach - quietly, behind closed doors like Mims agent did last year had a chance. In the end, the $500k was a nice gift from the Bengal's FO to let him tuck tail, save a little bit of his dignity and move on. That's it.

The Bengals wanted to set a precedent for new contracts with the default language in place. They accomplished that goal. They also had hoped not to set a new precedent with the extra 500k being paid up front, but that was the only way to finally get the deal done. So that means next year's 1st round pick will expect the same financial perk in exchange for accepting the default language.

I'm just glad that it is over. Absolutely no reason why Stewart cannot get some valuable snaps on Aug 7th against the best OL in football. He still seems to be in peak physical shape. Just needs to get out on the field now.

23 hours ago, Dautcom08 said:

Or his agent finally accepted less $ than he had been pushing for in exchange. It’s pretty easy to speculate. But this board is very aware of what you’d always assume.

It's been widely reported the team gave him an extra $500K in the first tranche of his signing bonus (taken from a later tranche).

So they gave something to get something. Very reasonable. But they should have done it weeks ago.

On 7/26/2025 at 11:50 AM, LostInDaJungle said:

In the end, the Bengalis ended up making concessions to get the new language added. This whole thing was amateur hour but I’m glad it’s finally done.

Stewart was able to get some money moved forward, which I guess is what this was all about for him. It definitely wasn’t about standing on principle or whatever nonsense his agent claimed.

On 7/26/2025 at 12:38 PM, New Jersey Bengal said:

I'd take him great dt. Supposedly the raiders wanted him to have surgery and he declined

Things are starting to come out that it was more than just the lousy rehab of his foot injury (not sure what "weird" means in this context though) ...

6 hours ago, BBR said:

Things are starting to come out that it was more than just the lousy rehab of his foot injury (not sure what "weird" means in this context though) ...

7 hours ago, BBR said:

Things are starting to come out that it was more than just the lousy rehab of his foot injury (not sure what "weird" means in this context though) ...

Maybe he'll have trouble finding a home he is a talent though

Supposedly he tried to give a teammate a kiss on the top of his head and that wasn't well received.

3 hours ago, sparky151 said:

Supposedly he tried to give a teammate a kiss on the top of his head and that wasn't well received.

Supposedly that is the cleaned up version of the story regarding what happened.

On 7/27/2025 at 11:14 AM, Inigo Montoya said:

Stewart was able to get some money moved forward, which I guess is what this was all about for him. It definitely wasn’t about standing on principle or whatever nonsense his agent claimed.

stewert had nothing to do with it.. he was misled by his agent on the reasoning. stewert really though the language was what this was about. i wouldnt expect LAA to be his agent by the time he is due for an extension.

his agent is such a joke..

🤡 Shemar's agent speaks ... Yikes 😳

3 minutes ago, BlackJesus said:

🤡 Shemar's agent speaks ... Yikes 😳

I'll miss it here, too.

Don't care a bit.

Time to move on and see what Shemar's got.

12 hours ago, BlackJesus said:

🤡 Shemar's agent speaks ... Yikes 😳

What an absolute rat