Shemar Stewart didn’t mean to do it, but his bump into Joe Burrow set off a scuffle at practice Wednesday. The rookie edge rusher addressed what happened 48 hours later, saying “the ground gave way” under his foot on a stunt, and he lost his balance while rushing Burrow up the middle.
“I had my head down, and I couldn’t really see where I was going. All I knew is I was falling,” Stewart said Friday, via Jay Morrison of SI.com. “Then the next you know. . . .”
Right guard Lucas Patrick defended his quarterback a few plays later, which center Ted Karras called a warranted response.
Stewart later apologized to Burrow.
“I said ‘You know, Joe, it was an accident. You know I never meant to do that,’” Stewart said. “He said, ‘It’s cool as long as you do it on Sundays, too.’ He kept it cool and short and sweet, and we just forgot about it.”
Stewart said although it was an accident, he won’t let it happen again.
“We know not to touch the main guy,” Stewart said. “I slipped. Next time I should just fall out of the way or something. I learned.”
Shemar Stewart was in the spotlight at the start of Bengals training camp because of the protracted wait for him to sign his rookie contract and the first-round edge rusher was the center of attention for different reasons at Wednesday’s practice.
Stewart rushed off the left side of the defense during one drill and bumped into Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow after stumbling. Burrow went down and right guard Lucas Patrick responded by getting into a scuffle with the rookie.
“Gotta protect No. 9, starts with me up front,” Patrick said, via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I gotta play better and protect better, but you can’t let No. 9 get hit.”
Quarterbacks are off limits at all training camps, but going through two prolonged absences and assorted other injury concerns for Burrow over the last five years makes the Bengals particularly keen on keeping him out of trouble. Center Ted Karras reinforced that message to Stewart.
“Just be smarter . . . great player, [but] that’s all of our hopes and dreams right there,” Karras said. “We’ve got to better too, that’s on us.”
The Bengals have two joint practices against the Commanders on August 15 and 16. There will likely be more than a brief scuffle should anyone hit Burrow during those sessions.
Quarterback Joe Burrow isn’t the only member of the Bengals who thinks running back Chase Brown has big things ahead of him this season.
After a quiet rookie season, the 2023 fifth-round pick broke out with 1,350 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns for the Bengals in 2024. That left offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher to call him “a top-10 back in the league” and he said the team wants Brown “ready to touch the ball as many times as possible.”
That goal led the team’s offensive coaches to rethink their run scheme for the 2025 season and running backs coach Justin Hill said the conversations were focused on Brown above all else.
“At the end of the conversation, it wasn’t about what we think looks good on the board,” Hill said, via Charlie Goldsmith of the Associated Press. "[It was] what is Chase good at? How can we showcase his tools in the run game and in the pass game? Where we have in the run game right now is pretty true to who we think Chase is and what he can be.”
The Bengals showed that they can feed plenty of mouths on offense in 2024. They’d like to do that again this season while also winning enough games to see if their revised approach can lead to a long postseason run.
The Bengals couldn’t dig themselves out of the 1-4 hole they dug for themselves at the start of the 2024 season and a history of slow starts led the team to shift gears this summer.
Starters are playing more in the preseason as head coach Zac Taylor tries to make sure that the team is firing on all cylinders right away. Going with the first team worked out well last Thursday as Joe Burrow threw a pair of touchdown passes in the first quarter, but another one of the team’s stars isn’t leaning into the notion that a faster start to the year will solve all Cincinnati’s problems.
During an appearance with Adam Schein of Mad Dog Sports Radio, Higgins said that he doesn’t “like the narrative of getting off to a hot start” because he believes the path back to the playoffs will come down to executing in all three phases and “finishing the game.”
“It’s just stop with the narratives, just go out there and just play football,” Higgins said. “Execute as a team. That’s really all I can really say about it.”
The nice thing for Higgins and the Bengals is that both starting fast and finishing strong are good paths to the record they failed to achieve last season.
For a player who hopes to get a new contract, a hold-in protects him from getting injured before he can get paid.
And while shifting the injury risk to the team is very important to the player, there’s another significant consideration for both the player and the team after the hold-in ends.
The overriding goal is to not get injured at all, obviously. As one league source recently explained it to PFT, there is some data to support the idea that injuries are more likely to happen after a hold-in, if the players returns to full duty without a proper acclimation period.
As the source said, the data “should not be dismissed.”
That puts the onus on everyone involved to make sure that, once a hold-in ends, the team and the player are being smart about what he does and when he does it.
In the case of Chargers tackle Rashawn Slater, his torn patellar tendon happened not long after he got the second contract he had earned. But there is, we’re told, at least a question as to whether he was doing too much, too soon.
Basically, the player’s mindset shouldn’t be, “I got my deal and I’m ready to go.” The team needs to be aware of that, too.
With several players throughout the league currently holding in, it’s important to remember that.
Specifically, it will be a factor for Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons, Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin, Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson, Bills running back James Cook, Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward, and any other players who may be practicing less or not at all while contract negotiations continue.
Yes, Slater got his contract. That’s good. Tearing a patellar tendon and missing all of 2025 is definitely not, for him or for the Chargers.
It’s something to watch with all hold-ins, now and in the future.
