Bengals insider shuts down Shemar Stewart Texas A&M comeback talk

The Cincinnati Bengals have been the center of all the drama this offseason and the latest tea suggests their first round pick could be headed back to school. Or is he?

Bengals reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, Kelsey Conway, shut down any notion that Shemar Stewart is headed back to Texas A&M and he and the Bengals have yet to come to terms on his rookie contract.

“Let me clear this up for everyone. Shemar Stewart lives in Texas when he's not in Cincinnati. I can confirm from a source that he is training at A&M by himself using their facilities (very common) to get ready for the upcoming NFL season. Not with the Texas A&M team. Carry on,” Conway posted to her X platform account on Tuesday. 

I guess it’s not irrational for people to speculate he returns to Texas A&M to improve his draft stock with another season. After all, statistically he probably shouldn’t have been a first round selection. 

Can a player go back to college after they are drafted in the NFL?

In short, no. Once a player declares for the NFL Draft, they have a 72-hour window from when they declare for the draft, to rescind that and go back to school. Stewart declared for the draft last December, meaning that doesn’t apply to him and he’s forfeited his collegiate eligibility. That means his options are pretty limited at this point as speculation around what he does moving forward arises. 

So anything that says Stewart, who is confirmed to be working out at Texas A&M’s facilities but not with the team itself, is headed back to college is false. He won’t be able to play in college any more even if he doesn’t sign his rookie contract. But what happens if he refuses to sign his rookie contract with the Bengals. 

What happens if Shemar Stewart refuses to sign his rookie contract after being drafted in the NFL?

If Shemar Stewart decides to not agree on the terms of the contract with the Bengals and they reach a stalemate, the Bengals would retain the draft rights to Stewart for a year. He could, theoretically, miss all of the training camp and preseason and eventually sign, like JaMarcus Russell did with the Raiders back in 2007. 

He could also not sign at all. He doesn’t sign, after a year, he would be eligible to re-enter the NFL Draft in 2026. This isn’t a wise decision though. While players like Ja’Marr Chase and Derek Stingley were still top 5 picks after forfeiting their final years of college ball to avoid injury and prepare for the NFL, it doesn’t look as good for a player to get drafted and wait a year simply because they didn’t sign their contract. 

It would probably hurt his stock and instead of being another first round selection, he could dip to being a Day 3 pick or even undrafted altogether. Then he could opt to play in the UFL, Canadian Football League if he wanted. 

Simply put, the best thing for Stewart and his agent to do is to find a common ground with the Bengals and get him ready for training camp. This has lingered on too long and is only hurting Stewart to begin with.