The Cincinnati Bengals are in a well-known contract dispute with their best defensive player and last year’s NFL sack leader, Trey Hendrickson. It’s been reported previously that Hendrickson has no intention of playing under his current contract, which has one year remaining on it for $16 million.
Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn and Hendrickson had a bit of a public verbal exchange about the situation a few weeks ago, but since then Hendrickson has been relatively silent.
Ian Rapoport went on The Pat McAfee Show this week and said Hendrickson’s silence could have been a negotiating tactic.
“I think that was by design that everything went quiet,” Rapoport said. “He made his point, I think it was received, very received. There has been some communication between the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson since that interview, since the draft, there have been talks. [The Bengals] picked Shemar Stewart off the edge. I think he understands that.”
The vast majority of Bengals players arrived Tuesday for voluntary OTAs, but Hendrickson was a no show.
Can the two sides strike a deal?
Rapoport thinks that everyone wants to get a deal done, but the Bengals can be feet-draggers sometimes and trade talks have yet to produce anything tangible. It doesn’t even seem like there are valid rumors floating around regarding a Hendrickson trade.
“I think they want to do a deal,” Rapoport continued. “Now, a trade I would never rule out a trade, because the NFL trades could happen literally at any moment … But I think they want to keep him. The Bengals sometimes function maybe a little slower than some organizations, but they do want to keep him and do a deal.”
Hendrickson won’t play under current deal
Jeremy Fowler said in late March on ESPN’s SportsCenter that Hendrickson is simply not going to play out the final year. How long he is willing to dig in heels remains to be seen, because many players over the years have said things like that in March or April, only to change their tunes when fines and/or missed game checks become a reality.
“He has no intention of playing under his current contract, which has one year and $16 million left. He needs a new deal, but the Bengals have just simply not shown an eagerness to trade Hendrickson,” Fowler said. “And there’s interest, there is trade interest from other teams trying to make this work, but it would take a really hefty trade package. Teams aren’t willing to do that and pay Hendrickson right now. So, as much as I want to go with the field, I still think they can work something out, Hendrickson and the Bengals, on a new deal. It’s been stagnant of late, it’s sort of stalled, but they have a couple of months at least to try to shake this out and get a new deal done.”
That was back in March before the 2025 NFL Draft and still no trade has come to fruition.
Some believe that Hendrickson is looking at Danielle Hunter ‘s new contract with the Houston Texans . He signed a $35.6 million extension that includes a $20 million signing bonus for $54.1 million.
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