As he enters the final year of his current deal, it looks like Trey Hendrickson’s time with the Cincinnati Bengals is coming to an end.
The 30-year-old joined the Bengals in 2021 and that four-year $60 million deal has just one more year still to run. Hendrickson has starred during his time in Cincinnati but talks with the team appear to have stalled, causing major frustration.
On Monday, ESPN released a statement from Hendrickson which points the blame squarely at the Bengals:
“No communication has taken place between my camp and the organization post draft. The offers prior to the draft did not reflect the vision we shared and were promised last offseason if I continued to play at a high level. Coaches are aware of these past conversations.”
“Rather than using collaboration to get us to a point to bring me home to the team, THEY are no longer communicating. I have been eagerly awaiting a resolution of this situation, but that’s hard to do when there is no discussion and an evident lack of interest in reaching mutual goals.”
Hendrickson is a key player for the Bengals but a new deal would likely be a major investment for the Bengals. He is coming off his best season in the NFL, leading the league with 17.5 sacks to clinch the Deacon Jones Award.
In recent months the Bengals made Ja'arrr chase the highest-paid non-QB in NFL history with a mammoth $161 million deal. If Hendrickson’s camp are using that figure as a benchmark for their own negotiations, the Bengals may have a difficult decision to make.
This is not the first time that Hendrickson and the Bengals have clash about contracts. Last month Bengals’ executive vice president Katie Blackburn said of Hendrickson: “I think he should be happy at certain rates that maybe he doesn’t think he’d be happy at.”
Hendrickson responded with an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, saying: “That was a little disappointing because the communication has been poor over the last couple of months.”
As it stands, Hendrickson has a $15.8 million base salary for his final year of the current contract. He has insisted that he’s not pushing to become the league’s highest-paid DE.
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