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Will the 49ers Trade for Bengals Rookie Shemar Stewart?

When the 49ers were on the clock with the 11th pick in the NFL, their selection seemed to come down to two big defensive ends -- Mykel Williams and Shemar Stewart.

Grant Cohn

The Cincinnati Bengals practice in the off season on Tuesday May 20, 2025. Bengals 2025 draft pick Shemar Stewart (97).
The Cincinnati Bengals practice in the off season on Tuesday May 20, 2025. Bengals 2025 draft pick Shemar Stewart (97). / Phil Didion/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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When the 49ers were on the clock with the 11th pick in the NFL, their selection seemed to come down to two big defensive ends -- Mykel Williams and Shemar Stewart.

Ultimately, the 49ers chose Williams. Now, it seems they could have both of them.

That's because the Bengals drafted Stewart, and they've already alienated him by putting language in his contract that would allow them to void future guarantees in his contract if he gets in trouble. Of course, Stewart has refused to sign this unprecedented deal and has not participated in any Bengals offseason practices.

If the Bengals won't change the language in their contract offer for Stewart, he could sit out the entire season and re-enter the Draft next year. He has millions of dollars from playing college football -- he can afford to wait.

Or, the Bengals could trade him. The NFL allows teams to trade rookies who haven't signed their contract until 30 days before the start of the regular season. And if the Bengals are afraid he'll sit out the season so he can re-enter the draft next year and they'll lose him and get nothing for him, they just might want to trade him.

And the 49ers might need Stewart. That's because their first-round pick, Mykel Williams, is injured already. He missed the second week of OTAs plus all of minicamp with a hamstring injury. Last season, he had a high-ankle sprain that limited his productivity.

In addition, veteran defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos missed all the spring practices as well. That's a big reason the 49ers traded for Bryce Huff.

A team never can have too many defensive linemen, and the 49ers currently don't have enough. They're thin at the position. Don't be surprised if they call up the Bengals and make an offer for Stewart.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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