Trey Hendrickson Skips Bengals Minicamp: Cincinnati Has a Major Problem on Its Hands
Trey Hendrickson is not at Bengals minicamp. He is not at OTAs either. He has been clear for months that he is not going to play without a new contract, and Cincinnati is in the awkward position of having one of the best pass rushers in football publicly demand a market-correct deal.
Hendrickson has led the NFL in sacks in each of the last two seasons. He just turned 31. His current contract pays him significantly less than the elite pass rushers in his peer group. He is not asking for the moon. He is asking to be compensated like the player he has demonstrably been for two consecutive years.
The Bengals’ position has been confusing. The team gave Joe Burrow a record-setting deal. They gave Ja’Marr Chase a market-resetting receiver contract. They gave Tee Higgins a long-term extension. They have committed to spending top dollar on the most important positions on the roster, with one glaring exception: their best defensive player.
The math says the Bengals can afford to extend Hendrickson. The hesitation has nothing to do with cap room and everything to do with organizational philosophy. Cincinnati has a long history of being conservative on second contracts for older players. They do not want to be the team paying $30 million per year to a 33-year-old defensive end who has slowed down.
That is a reasonable philosophical concern. It is also a recipe for losing your best players when they are still playing at an elite level. Hendrickson has not slowed down. The argument that he might slow down two years from now is not a justification for paying him below market today.
The standoff is escalating. Recent reports suggest Hendrickson and the Bengals are “at least talking again,” which is progress, but it is also the kind of progress that usually signals weeks of further negotiations rather than an imminent deal. Hendrickson is willing to escalate. He has already sat out OTAs. He has already sat out mandatory minicamp. The next escalation is the regular season.
If Hendrickson holds out into the regular season, the Bengals are going to have a major problem. The defense was already shaky last year. Without Hendrickson generating pressure off the edge, the entire defensive structure collapses. The secondary cannot survive without the pass rush. The Bengals were a top-ten team with Hendrickson and a bottom-ten team without him.
This is a self-inflicted crisis. The Bengals could have extended Hendrickson last summer, when the price would have been lower. They could have extended him in March, when the market for elite pass rushers had not yet been reset by another round of deals. They could extend him today and end the situation. Every day they wait, the price goes up and the relationship gets worse.
The risk is losing Hendrickson for free. If he holds out into the season and the Bengals refuse to budge, he might just leave at the end of his contract and sign with a team that values him. The Bengals would be left with nothing.
The smarter move is to extend him now. Three years, $90 million guaranteed, market-correct money for a player who has earned it. The cap implications are manageable. The roster benefits are obvious. The locker room implications are positive, because Hendrickson is one of the most respected players in the building.
Cincinnati has Joe Burrow on a Hall of Fame trajectory. The window to win a championship around him is open right now and closing slowly. Letting your best defensive player rot in a contract dispute is not how championship-window teams operate.
Hendrickson is going to get his money. The only question is whether he gets it from Cincinnati or from somebody else. The Bengals are running out of time to make sure it is the former.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
