The Cincinnati Bengals have some ongoing and well-documented issues with defensive end Trey Hendrickson. The reigning NFL sack leader (17.5 in 2024) is not happy with his current contract and apparently has no intentions of playing under it.
Responding Wednesday on The Pat McAfee Show to comments from Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn, Hendrickson said the communication between the two parties has been less than ideal.
“Those comments from Katie Blackburn were definitely disappointing & communication has been poor over the last couple of months…It’s been a little bit frustrating & if they have anything they’d like to discuss we’re definitely willing to listen.”
“Communication has been poor over the last couple of months,” Hendrickson said. “That’s something I hold in high regard. They have not communicated with my agent directly. It’s been something that’s been a little bit frustrating.”
Blackburn doesn’t seem optimistic
“I think he should be happy at certain rates that maybe he doesn’t think he’d be happy at,” Blackburn said earlier in April, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I think some of it is on him, and if he’s not, you know, that’s what holds it up sometimes. So, you know, it takes him to say yes to something, and also, we have all the respect in the world for him. He’s been a great player. We’re happy to have him. And so maybe we’ll find a way to get something to work. We’re just gonna see where it goes.”
She said something eerily similar back in 2009 when they were trying to sign their first-round pick Andre Smith. The holdout was shown on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” and Blackburn (then Katie Brown) expressed confusion as to how a guy could be offered all this money and it wasn’t enough. Smith eventually signed at the very end of August before the season started.
“I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly what’s going to happen,” Blackburn said. “So, we’ll just have to see how it all plays out.”
Bengals tied their own hands
There’s almost a ‘welp, what do you want me to do?’ attitude with Blackburn and the Bengals. The Bengals have historically known to be on the cheaper side of NFL franchises.
“As you’re trying (to put) all these pieces together, you have certain limitations eventually,” Blackburn said. “So he seemed to feel strongly about it, and thought the strength of interest out there was going to be at a certain level. And so, we said that it would be okay to at least explore and so we don’t do that all the time, but in this case, we felt like it was the right thing to do, case by case basis every time.”
“And he’s still a Bengal, so we’ll see. It’s just something that we’ll keep working through.”
The limitations are the Bengals’ fault and the Bengals’ fault alone. Obviously, they had to pay Joe Burrow and a quarterback at his level isn’t cheap. No one disgreed with him getting a five-year, $275 million contract back in 2023. But, you waited to pay out big contracts to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins this year and now you have a lot of money and cap tied up in three offensive players. The defense was 25th in the NFL last year and Hendrickson is by far the best player on that side of the ball.
So, now you’re looking at trading him to a team that has to now pay him a big extension (meaning they’re less likely to give up a haul in resources in a trade), keep an unhappy player, cut him or have him hold out and not play.
The Bengals did this to themselves. Again.
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