Cincinnati Bengals fans are well acquainted with the recent drama between their team and pass rusher Trey Hendrickson and his agent.
When both sides ultimately compromised on him receiving an increased salary for the 2025 season, essentially, it became understood that after the season, Hendrickson would be allowed to leave in some capacity. Turns out it was as an unrestricted free agent.
Despite being one of the biggest names on the open market, it seems he has had some issues finding his footing out
of the gates.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter and CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones report that Hendrickson may have overestimated the demand for his services as a 31-year-old (32 in December) pass rusher coming off a back injury that required surgery.
It turns out that teams are not willing to meet his $30 million APY demands. Hendrickson has been one of the pass rushers in the league for the past five seasons. However, age and injury are working against him quite a bit.
The Bengals have already seemingly moved on, agreeing to terms with edge Boye Mafe on a 3-year, $60 million contract. What is kind of ironic is that the Bengals had previously offered Hendrickson a deal in line with what he is looking for now, though it lacked guaranteed money beyond Year 1.
That guaranteed money was a serious sticking point, but it turns out the NFL isn’t lining up to give that deal to him now on the open market. This is where it becomes a lot clearer just how bad Hendrickson’s agent has been.
The Bengals even allowed his agent to negotiate with other teams for a trade, so he had to have some idea of the market for his player. This all stems from agreeing to a one year extension during his original contract, which was not close to what he was worth. That set up the stalemate in Cincinnati.
Now, he is sitting there probably thinking of how he has to explain to Hendrickson how bad things broke for them. You won’t hear an apology from the national media over how they covered the Bengals being cheap, but I’ll give one. It turns out they were 100% in the right this time.
A world probably doesn’t exist where Hendrickson comes back to the Bengals. But you have to wonder how he feels about making that huge stink on the part of his agent last offseason, only to be rewarded by getting even lower offers.
Saying this, what are your thoughts on the Bengals potentially re-signing Trey Hendrickson? Let us know in the comments section!
