As Bengals open training camp without Trey Hendrickson and Shemar Stewart, Ja'Marr Chase sees ‘a lot of feelings involved'

Yahoo

4 days ago

CINCINNATI — On the left side of the Cincinnati Bengals' locker room, a backpack with a No. 97 ID tag lay unopened at a locker bearing the same number. Shower towels lay unused and folded in an upper compartment. An unopened package rested on a seat atop rows of cleats.
Three cubbies down, a black folding chair obstructed entrance to a locker that didn't need entering. Three sealed boxes piled in front of a No. 91 jersey.
Questions loomed about when each locker would again be inhabited.
Because as the Bengals kicked off training camp practices Wednesday, two key edge rushers did not report.
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All-Pro Trey Hendrickson and 2025 first-round pick Shemar Stewart each held out amid contract disputes.
'Obviously disappointing,' quarterback Joe Burrow said. 'You'd like to have all your guys out there Day 1 to try to build that cohesion.
'It can be frustrating. But that's the business of the NFL. That's how things go.'
Hendrickson and Stewart's contract disputes stem primarily from different but related disagreements over contract guarantees.
Coaches and teammates' outlook on their respective absences also reflect different but related perspectives: Multiple players and coaches reflected more concern about Stewart's absence than Hendrickson's given the rookie's inexperience compared to Hendrickson entering Year 9.
And yet: The Bengals replaced defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo with Al Golden this offseason, meaning all of Cincinnati's defense has new principles to learn. Neither edge rusher is where the team wants him to be for Week 1.
As a group, the Bengals' defense outplayed its offense even without Hendrickson and Stewart on the first, and unpadded, day of practice. A disguise-heavy system left Burrow frustrated his offense played 'poorly' while the defense looked 'really sharp.'
'They won the day,' Burrow said of his defense, as those around him wondered: Who, if anyone, will win the Bengals' contract negotiations?
And when?
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Breaking down Trey Hendrickson and Shemar Stewart's holdouts
The Bengals' contract dispute with Hendrickson is within the realm of standard contract disagreements. Hendrickson is coming off consecutive 17.5-sack seasons, leading the league in sacks last year even as he turned 30 in December.
Club and player agree that Hendrickson has earned a raise from the $16 million cash payout he's due on the final year of his existing deal. The value of that deal is trickier, particularly for a franchise that has long resisted multi-year guarantees.
The Bengals broke that trend with Burrow and again gave multiyear guarantees to receiver Ja'Marr Chase this spring. Quarterbacks tend to encounter different extension parameters, so Chase's deal is more relevant to Hendrickson's case. Hendrickson and his camp will argue: Did you see those league-best 35 sacks in two years? The Bengals, meanwhile, will argue that Chase, 25, is the best at his position in the prime of his career … and even as they value Hendrickson, they don't consider him in his prime age nor the best at his position.
Chase diagnosed the acrimony a year after his own training camp hold-in.
'It was a lot of feelings involved, even though it's not supposed to be involved,' Chase told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday. 'I feel like feelings are definitely involved when they're giving away their money.'
He told Hendrickson to remember each player's words and actions represent themselves first while also representing the team.
'You know you are the best in the league,' Chase said recently to Hendrickson, with whom he spoke to as recently as this week. 'You don't have to make it [known] globally at the end of the day. I mean, we both know what kind of situation we're in and who we're dealing with.'
Rookie holdouts, on the other hand, are not what the NFL is used to dealing with as the rookie wage scale dictates the value of players' first contracts based on factors including their draft slot. Value debates arise much more often on extensions.
Stewart and his agent, Zac Hiller, are disputing contract language the Bengals changed.
In rookie contracts this year, the Bengals strengthened their language on the ability to void future guarantees if players engage in conduct detrimental to the team, a source with knowledge of the contract told Yahoo Sports. Cincinnati already had a clause referencing that void ability, which it has not used. But the Bengals added the three words 'at any time' to the clause, per source, as they desired to 'clarify the meaning of the words.'
The Bengals insist the language is more in line with the league standard, a claim sources from multiple clubs confirmed to Yahoo Sports. The sources said their own clubs, as well as previous clubs they worked for, used that or similar language as a method of protection.
The Bengals were advised that the omission of 'at any time' could hurt them in mediation given its prevalence in club contracts, a source said.
So far, it's hurt their ability to sign their top draft pick.
'From what I heard and what I've seen, he wants to be here, he wants to play — so I feel bad for him that it's not working out,' fellow edge rusher Joseph Ossai told Yahoo Sports. 'That rookie training camp is important. It helps you grow. It helps you knock out a lot of the rookie mistakes, so to speak.
'I pray they can get it figured out.'
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As Golden took the field for a sunny practice Wednesday morning, the defensive coordinator was itching to coach his players — including Stewart.
'We had so many drills set up for him,' Golden told Yahoo Sports. 'I can't wait until he gets here — just to teach him how to finish, and, when he does win early, how to come under control a little bit.'
Golden, who coordinated Notre Dame's fourth-ranked defense last season before returning to the NFL, valued Stewart's ability to collapse the pocket and to rush outside and inside. He was eager to run Stewart through core fundamental drills to sharpen tackling and ball disruption, as well as how to 'escape' or get off a block.
'We've identified a couple of things and we have a couple of drills lined up for him when he does come, that can, if you will, negate any negatives and accentuate the positives,' Golden said. 'The reality of that is there's certain things that he did exceedingly well, so well, that he got drafted really high.
'And then there's certain things that I just don't believe in ignoring.'
Cincinnati selected Stewart with the 17th overall pick after talent evaluators across the league were split on his value. Were Stewart's 39 pressures last season a sign of a player just cracking his potential? Or were his mere two sacks off those 39 pressures a sign something was missing on the road to dominance?
'Everybody deserves an opportunity to get better,' Golden said, 'and we just can't wait to get him out here just to go through some of the things that we think can help him increase his sack total.'
Hendrickson, meanwhile, impresses Golden as 'a guy who can win a one-on-one at any point in the game' and finish in high-pressure situations.
For now, neither Hendrickson nor Stewart are finishing plays — or even starting them.
And after Chase's contract dispute lasted all of 2024 training camp and regular season until the 2025 offseason, uncertainty looms about when resolutions will come for the edge rushers and on what terms.
Uncertainty lingers about how long their lockers will remain vacant and how long their packages will rest unopened.
'Hopeful that whatever's going on there can get resolved,' offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher told Yahoo Sports. 'We need all of our good players here to help us get where we need to go.'