The New Orleans Saints already walked out of day one of the 2025 NFL Draft with smiles after landing Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr.
With his top-ten contract signed and all settled, Banks is expected to become the team’s starting left tackle as soon as his inaugural season begins.
Before the draft, however, there was a prevailing belief among many draft experts that the Saints may be looking to add to the other side of the trenches.
One of the names most commonly connected to the team at No. 9 overall in expert mock drafts was Texas A&M pass rusher Shemar Stewart.
The hold up on Stewart, and the key reason why no one that regularly covers the team locally believed the selection made sense, were the need for development paired with a lack of production.
Stewart had just 4.5 sacks and 12 tackles for a loss over his collegiate career. New Orleans was in need of a ready-made prospect like Banks and likely would not have been the right landing spot for Stewart with so much changing around the team.
Instead, Stewart was taken No. 17 overall by the Cincinnati Bengals and, in typical Bengals fashion, things are already not going very well.
Per the NFL, Stewart is one of five first-rounders that have not signed rookie deals. Of them, he is the only to decline being present for mandatory minicamp practices.
The reason? A contract dispute over a rookie deal. To be clear, this is all on the Bengals, who are trying to “set a new precedent” per Cincinnati.com, by negotiating a deal that would allow the team to void guarantees in the future. Not ideal for any player, especially one that needs development and polish.
Stewart, who was present at Bengals mandatory minicamp but did not participate, made it known that he is clearly frustrated with the team’s approach.
Another key quote from Shemar Stewart. By “y’all” he means the Bengals front office.
“I’m 100 percent right. I’m not asking for nothing y’all have never done before. But in y’all case, y’all just want to win arguments (more) than winning more games.”
— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) June 10, 2025
Bear in mind that the Bengals are also dealing with an ongoing contract dispute with star edge rusher and former Saint Trey Hendrickson. Presumably, the selection of Stewart was to help overcome the eventual departure of Hendrickson whether it came this year or down the road.
One thing is for sure, the Saints likely would have handled this situation a lot differently and ideally more effectively than Cincinnati has. New Orleans still has one remaining unsigned drafted rookie, second-round quarterback Tyler Shough. But the relationship between the two isn’t fracturing because of it, and Shough is a full participant in practices as he tries to win the starting quarterback role.
Obviously the situation around Shough is much different. He’s vying for a huge role, opportunity and eventual paycheck that could dwarf his rookie earnings, and the lack of signing has more to do with a precedent set by another team than anything between the quarterback and the Saints.
The Stewart situation feels much more adversarial, something the Saints will be happy to have avoided should there have been anything contested between the two.
