The NFL season is officially here, and the Cincinnati Bengals are getting ready to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Paycor Stadium.
Training camp and the preseason went mostly smoothly for the Bengals; however, it did have a rough start as last year’s first-round pick suffered an injury, which resulted in him being carted off after practice. While the team received good news that the injury to Shemar Stewart would not be season-ending, it still caused him to miss most of the exhibition season. Fortunately, he did return to practice ahead of the regular season as he managed to avoid being placed on injured reserve.
Now, the Cincinnati Bengals have announced Shemar Stewart’s status for their Week 1 game.
Cincinnati Bengals Announce Shemar Stewart’s Status
Ahead of Sunday’s season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Cincinnati Bengals have announced their list of inactive players.
Mike Petraglia posted on X: “First INACTIVES for Bengals: Ke’Shawn Williams, Josh Newton, Connor Lew, Myles Hinton, Jack Endries, Shemar Stewart, Landon Robinson”
Stewart was a long shot to be active after he received a doubtful designation heading into this game.
Previously, StripeHype’s Matt Fitzgerald wrote of Stewart’s likely absence: “It’s a bummer for the 2025 first-round pick who just didn’t have the wherewithal to be competent as a rookie. Stewart has all the talent in the world. No need for him to rush back with such a deep defensive line in Cincinnati.”
Prior to Stewart receiving the doubtful designation, head coach Zac Taylor had kept the door open for the second-year player playing in the season opener. Taylor said earlier in the week, “It’s a possibility. Shemar will keep working towards that. So I won’t make any predictions on how it’s going to end up this week for him. But I think he’s feeling a lot better every single day. Monday felt good, and we’ll just progress them this week and see where it ends up.”
Last season, Stewart appeared in only eight games as he also dealt with injuries. During those eight games, Stewart notched only one sack.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
While the team will be without Stewart, the Bengals are close to full-strength for their season opener.
Brianna Dix posted on X: “BUCCANEERS INACTIVES: DL DeMonte Capehart CB Ayden Garnes WR Jalen McMillan G Billy Schrauth DL Elijah Simmons T Justin Skule RB Sean Tucker”
They will take on a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that went 8-9 last season and missed the playoffs despite a 6-2 start. The two teams last faced off in the 2022 season, when Tom Brady was still Tampa Bay’s quarterback. On that occasion, Cincinnati came out on top 34-23 as Joe Burrow threw for four touchdowns.
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