08/18/2025
THE CINCINNATI BENGALS ARE NOW LISTENING TO TRADE OFFERS FOR DE TREY HENDRICKSON AND THIS WAS THE WORST CASE SCENARIO FOR THE BENGALS
The Cincinnati Bengals has to be one of the worst run franchises in the NFL today. Trey Hendrickson, who will turn 31 years old this season, has 1 year left on his current contract, which was extended for 1 season back in 2023 after he signed a 4 year deal in 2021 on an average salary of 15 million per year.
Much has changed in the NFL since the 2021 season and edge rushers that can sack the quarterback are at an ultimate premium in today's game. The average amount of pass attempts in the NFL (2024) is a bit over 35 pass attempts per game, which means that a player like Trey Hendrickson who lead the entire NFL in sacks last season with 17.5, beating out all-pro players like Myles Garrett and TJ Watt, is by far the most important player on this Bengals defense that ranked 25th out of 32 teams in the most yards allowed last season.
Now imagine this team without Trey Hendrickson.
To emphasize on the point further, Trey Hendrickson was obviously the leader of his team in sacks last year, but he also did not have much help on his team. The player who ranked 2nd in sacks on his team was fellow DE Joseph Ossai, who ended the season with a total of 5 sacks on the year.
To make matters worse for the Bengals, the franchise gave their star DE permission to seek a trade on March 6th of 2025, per report from ESPN. This is not the first time that the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson have come to an impasse on contract negotiations. Just last year, Trey bet on himself, signing the 1 year 21M contract, and duplicating the sack total he had after the 2023 season with 17.5 sacks.
Trey deserves to receive a raise - I don't think that is even in question, but I am sure the Bengals believed that after Trey's 2023 season where he had 17.5 sacks, they would roll the dice and Trey would lose. Trey won, performing at an all-pro level once again and now the Bengals are forced to listen to trade offers and instead of receiving a major haul for a player that may be older, but is still performing at an elite level with no signs of slowing down, they just relinquished a ton of leverage with opposing teams now knowing that the trade value for Hendrickson is a lot less than it was last season or even before this season's NFL Draft.
Good luck this season Bengals fans.
