Trey Hendrickson Needs to Come to Terms with Reality

Trey Hendrickson can make a big stink about his contract, but the reality is he put himself in this situation by signing an ill-advised extension in 2023.

Is it safe to say the Cincinnati Bengals negotiations with star defensive end Trey Hendrickson have gotten contentious?

Just kidding: we’re way past contentious by now.  We’re bordering on outright rebellion.

It didn’t have to be like this.  It probably shouldn’t have gotten to this point.  Both sides have some blame for how this situation has devolved into an unmitigated crisis, now culminating with Hendrickson officially absent at the start of training camp.

As a refresher, Hendrickson wants a new contract.  At the same time – and this is a critical point – Hendrickson is under contract.  He is not a free agent.  He is owed checks notes $16 million for the 2025 season.  $16 million sounds pretty sweet to you and me, but for the NFL’s reigning sack leader, getting paid less than half of those at the top of the defensive end market is a little hard to swallow.

After initial extension talks went nowhere, the Bengals granted Hendrickson permission to seek a trade in March.  And (surprise, surprise), not one team was willing to meet Hendrickson’s demands.  Obviously, it’s a little more complicated than just dollars and cents (because whichever NFL team traded for him would also have to offer significant compensation to the Bengals in terms of players and/or draft picks), but the point remains: nobody wanted to meet Hendrickson at his desired price-point.  Like it or not, Hendrickson is stuck negotiating with the Bengals.  No one is coming to his rescue.

Except, the Bengals apparently agree that Hendrickson deserves a raise.  They’ve repeatedly said as much throughout the offseason.  Duke Tobin, the Bengals de facto general manager, just said so in a press conference on Monday.  So, what’s the issue?

Here’s where things keep getting interesting.  The reporting is all over the place.  The problem is the Bengals aren’t offering enough money…no wait, the problem is the Bengals aren’t offering enough years on the extension…just kidding, the problem is the Bengals aren’t guaranteeing enough money at the end of the contract.  It’s all the above.

The goalposts are endlessly shifting in these negotiations.  The Bengals get labeled as the “bad guys” because of their reputation.  Their cheapness precedes them.  But that narrative is as inaccurate as it is disingenuous.

When it comes to negotiations with Hendrickson, the Bengals cannot be cheap.  The very fact they’re negotiating at all is proof-positive.  Hendrickson is – say it with me, y’all – under contract.  He is owed $16 million for the 2025 season.  That’s not a suggestion.  That doesn’t come with a wink-wink and a nod-nod.  That’s not a number conjured out of thin air.  That’s what Hendrickson, his agent, and the Cincinnati Bengals negotiated.

Hendrickson could have, simply, said no.  If he had just done that, he would have been a free agent this offseason, free to sign for as much money and for as many years and with as many guarantees he could possibly hope for.  Instead, he signed the contract extension the Bengals presented him.  It’s not the Bengals fault Hendrickson made a decision he regretted.

Hendrickson has a right to be pissed.  He also has a right to ask for more.  The Bengals are listening, and they’ve acquiesced.  They’re meeting him in the middle.  By definition, offering him anything more than the $16 million he’s owed for the 2025 season is meeting him in the middle.  Hendrickson and his camp have decided that they want to have their cake and eat it too.  Opting for that kind of strategy might work against some of the more impotent and desperate owners in the NFL, but this is Mike Brown we’re talking about: nobody this side of the Mississippi has better job security.

Hendrickson is in the middle of a staring contest with a man who hasn’t blinked in fifty years.  That doesn’t bode well for the Bengals 30-year-old pass rusher.  His leverage is all but non-existent.

Hendrickson’s entire gambit is misguided.  Mike Brown isn’t suddenly going to cave – just ask Carson Palmer.  Sitting out the season, as Hendrickson has publicly claimed he might do, isn’t really an option either.  Not only will Hendrickson rack up fine after fine for missing training camp, but he’ll start forfeiting game checks once the regular season begins. Some have tried going the distance, like Le’Veon Bell and Hassan Reddick, but in Bell’s case, it practically ruined his career, and in Reddick’s case, his career is hanging on by a thread.

This is Hendrickson’s fate should he choose to push the nuclear option.  Sitting out the season is career suicide.  His only option is to take the Bengals best offer.  He can sit out all of training camp to try and make that “best” offer marginally better, but he’ll rack up significant fines in the process.

Hendrickson is a great player, but he isn’t this irreplaceable, unstoppable player with unlimited upside.  His last two seasons were outstanding, but there’s a non-zero chance he won’t reach those highs again – and his drop off could be rapid and extreme.  The Bengals are betting on over 100 years of NFL history that says giving extensions to players in their 30s (especially at positions that rely heavily on athleticism, like defensive end) is bad business.  That doesn’t make them cheap; that’s sound strategy.  Hendrickson can, and should, fight for every dollar he can get, but at some point he needs to come to terms with reality: he can try to get more, but he can’t get everything he wants.