Trey Hendrickson still is not with the Cincinnati Bengals, but a resolution could coming soon.
Sports Illustrated insider Albert Breer broke down the latest update on the Hendrickson-Bengals saga and said the team’s upcoming mandatory minicamp June 10-12 will be “one to keep an eye on.”
Hendrickson, of course, has been holding out for a new contract and has publicly stated he is willing to sit out training camp or even the regular season if the Bengals don’t offer him a contract consistent with his worth.
Hendrickson has posted consecutive 17.5-sack seasons and has three double-digit-sack seasons since he signed a four-year, $60 million contract with the Bengals after the 2020 NFL season.
How Far Apart Are Hendrickson and The Bengals On A Contract?
It’s hard to put much stock into the bluster on each side, especially at this point in the off-season.
Free agency has lapsed. The draft is behind us. OTAs and mandatory minicamps are coming and going. There isn’t much pushing a star-caliber player — or a team, for that matter — to the bargaining table with training camp still several weeks away.
That was the point Breer made in his weekly takeaways column that dropped earlier Monday.
“The Trey Hendrickson thing needs deadlines to create movement,” Breer wrote.
Of course, Hendrickson reportedly won’t play out the final year of his contract with the Bengals and is seeking a long-term deal. Cincinnati initially gave Hendrickson the opportunity to seek a trade in March, but no deals have materialized yet.
What Will Happen Next With Trey Hendrickson and The Bengals?
Mandatory minicamps are a good way to inspire movement.
Look around the league, and there are a lot of great players not attending OTAs. But mandatory minicamps, like Cincinnati’s next week, will be a good barometer since even holdouts have shown up without contracts in the past.
Still, Hendrickson has dug his heels in, and smart people around the NFL are predicting the Bengals will be the side that blinks first and ponies up to pay their best defensive player.
The 31-year-old, who is due to make about $15 million this season, could be due to make at least twice that — or more — since Hendrickson has the most sacks in the NFL over the past two seasons. Rival defensive end Myles Garrett just signed the richest deal for a defensive player, a four-year, $160 million deal, with the Cleveland Browns.
Hendrickson is just the latest example of the Bengals doing things differently from other teams, according to experts.
âThis team just doesnât pull the levers that other teams do,â said Robert Mays host of “The Athletic Football Podcast” recently. âAnd I think itâs always going to put you at a disadvantage. Iâm not asking them to do anything crazy. This isnât like a ton of void years or any of that other stuff where youâre all like so much cash over cap that you canât survive as an organization run like the Bengals are.
“These are layups to be taken. This is just modern NFL contract structures. You shouldnât be in a situation cap-wise like they are after paying those two guys where youâre not giving yourself any sort of relief.â
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