Once again, the Cincinnati Bengals are tasked with overcoming a non-football obstacle during training camp. In recent years, injuries to quarterback Joe Burrow contributed to the team’s slow starts that ultimately contributed to Cincinnati missing the playoffs each of the last two years. And while Burrow is healthy now, the Bengals are without two of their top pass rushers with training camp underway.
While Cincinnati was able to re-sign wideouts Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins earlier this offseason, it continues to deal with contract issues as Pro Bowl pass rusher Trey Hendrickson and 2025 first-round pick Shemar Stewart are holding out during the first week of training camp.
“Obviously disappointing,” Burrow said, via ESPN. “You’d like to have all your guys out there Day 1 to try to build that cohesion that I was talking about earlier, but that’s not how it usually works out.
“You know, it’s a business. And that is how it’s gone.”
Along with Burrow, Bengals owner Mike Brown and general manager Duke Tobin addressed both of the team’s holdouts earlier this week. While optimism was expressed regarding Hendrickson and his situation, the language regarding Stewart’s situation was anything but.
“His agent wants it to be so that if he acted in a terrible fashion — this is all hypothetical — something that rises to the level of going to prison, that we would be on the line for the guarantees for the future years that haven’t been paid,” Brown said. “And our position is no, if that happens, we’re not going to be. We’re not going to be paying someone who’s sitting in jail. That’s not what we’re going to do.”
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While their current situation isn’t normal, the Bengals aren’t the only NFL team that is currently dealing with a tricky contract situation involving a highly-notable player. The Cowboys, for example, are in the middle of what is becoming a contentious contract situation with star linebacker Micah Parsons. Like Hendrickson, Parsons is entering the final year of a contract that has fallen off pace when it comes to what the league’s highest-paid defenders are currently making.
Burrow doesn’t fault his teammates for holding out. He also doesn’t fault the Bengals, although he did say that, “The earlier you get these things done, the better.”
Finger pointing aside, the fact that the Bengals are in this predicament has to be frustrating for Cincinnati’s players and fans who are hoping to maximize whatever years it has left with Burrow in tow.
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Author: Bryan DeArdo
July 24, 2025 | 11:05 am
