Trey Hendrickson spent the last month in Cincinnati, working out to prepare for the season and hoping the Bengals would finally offer an acceptable contract extension.
Instead, he has retreated to Florida to commence a long-threatened holdout as the rest of the team begins training camp.
During a recent press conference, Bengals owner Mike Brown and de facto general manager Duke Tobin struck an optimistic tone about the state of negotiations with Hendrickson. Behind the scenes, however, the team still refused to meet Hendrickson’s core demands regarding length and guarantees. Neither of the Bengals’ two most recent offers included guaranteed money past the first year, per The Athletic’s Diana Russini.
Hendrickson received and rejected both offers in a 24-hour span before packing his bags and following through on his threat to hold out from training camp.
“I wanted to be there,” said Hendrickson (via Russini), “but there’s no way I would be able to sit there in the house and hear the practice whistles while also being a distraction. I don’t want to ruin the other 10 guys’ 2025 season on my contract language.”
Length and guarantees remain the main obstacle to a deal, suggesting that the two sides have been able to find a middle ground on APY. Hendrickson has emphasized that he is not demanding a market-resetting figure, something he reiterated in his interview with Russini.
“I was more than willing to take less in some ways in order to make a deal work,” explained Hendrickson, who expressed a desire to be a team captain and help mentor his younger teammates, including first-round pick and fellow holdout Shemar Stewart. But none of that can begin until and unless the Bengals meet Hendrickson’s demands, or at least enough of them to convince him to put pen to paper and get back on the field.
Despite the prolonged stalemate, Hendrickson is not expected to be traded, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer (via ESPN Chicago). Hendrickson told Russini that he wants to be in Cincinnati and knows the team feels the same way, something both sides have been consistent about throughout the offseason.
I knew that for all the talk about Hendrickson being greedy, Cincinnati was being completely unreasonable.
They expect to basically get him on a glorified one year deal and somehow think that’s smart negotiating.
No way a player at his peak like Trey would accept that deal. Period.
How about he just shows up and plays and lives up to the previous extension he already signed and has another year left? He’s under a contract. Let him play it out and he can become a free agent next year and see who wants to pay him. Odds are, no team is willing to give him the dollars and the term he is seeking at his age.
Then he won’t be a distraction either.
You think the team would let him walk?? They can tag him year after year. And if he gets hurt they can toss him aside. Hence, players pushing for more guarantees when they have leverage.
I love the people who say, “Honor your deal.”
Owners only have to honor guarantees!
But I do think teams would line up to give him more than what Brown and the Bengals are offering. Absolutely.
I agree with most of what you said but they can only tag a single player a maximum of three times. By the third tag they are paying 144% of the second tag. It makes more sense financially to just sign them to a normal deal by that point.
That being said I also hate the “Honor your deal” crap. Just because someone is making millions of dollars doesn’t mean they should not be paid market value. If anyone here were applying for a job they wouldn’t just accept an offer because it’s enough. They would expect to be paid what is fair according to the market.
He won’t become a free agent. They’ll franchise him.
It’ll look good on all of them when they fail again and again.
Would something in the realm of 160 for 4 years be realistic here? Is it the notion that Cincy’s that strapped due to cap constraints? Somethings got to give but it’s not looking good from a logistical standpoint for the Bengals. Hasn’t their fan base suffered enough? Just get it done
I doubt the Bengals would go that high, but the more present problem seems to be that they won’t push guarantees past the first year. They also refuse to ever use tactics like void years that allow the Eagles to lock up so many guys. They could absolutely make it work in terms of cap space. The bigger issue with the Bengals is often cash spending, not cap spending. All guaranteed money needs to be put in escrow up front. For a cash poor owner (by owner standards—still obviously a billionaire in net worth) who refuses to take on a minor owner for an infusion of cash, this can be a big sticking point.
I doubt the Bengals would go that high, but the amount and structure of guarantees is the bigger factor. The Bengals always try to avoid long term guarantees, which is why they almost never play in the deep end of free agency. They also avoid tactics like void years, which have helped the Eagles lock up so many guys. The Bengals can absolutely make it work in terms of the cap, but cash spending might be more of an issue here. One reason is that teams have to put 100% of a contract’s fully guaranteed money in escrow after signing. For relatively cash poor owners (by owner standards—they’re all still billionaires by net worth), this can be a greater burden, especially if they refuse to sell part of the team for a cash infusion.
Pretty obvious that the Bengals are not going to negotiate in the press, namely they are not going to make any details of their offers public….so, most fans and the majority of commenters on this site will paint them as a bad front office and owner, unwilling to agree to demands on length and salary….which Hendrickson keeps publicly making known he and his camp don’t believe are unreasonable (don’t want to set the market high on my skills) …..so one side is being mocked as uncaring but how about the money they have doled out to their QB and WR…..and what about Stewart who wants to get guaranteed contract even though he hasn’t played a down in the NFL….pretty much read in these columns that they were in the same position and caved and gave them their money…..do they have the cap and how much money is enough to field a playoff caliber team?
I don’t really like to form opinions without all the information, but the answer seems obvious to me (if this report is accurate): just give Hendrickson some guarantees for at least two years. It doesn’t have to be market setting, just make the offer, and make it somewhat reasonable. If he rejects it then, it’s on him, but all of this posturing isn’t making this less expensive. And if Cincy doesn’t think that they need it (hence why they’re not offering that money)…then yeah, trade him to someone who will make that offer. Rather silly, it seems. It’s not like Hendrickson hasn’t played well.
As for the comments about being a distraction…maybe Hendrickson really does feel that way, but fact is, it’s already a distraction. Unless Hendrickson or management somehow honestly thinks that team practices missing its two presumptive starting defensive ends with very public headlines following them all offseason somehow isn’t distracting, they already know it is, too. Not to mention the coaches having to adjust to who isn’t there and who is. Ship’s sailed on that one.
It just feels like none of this is a mystery – we’ve been hearing about it forever. Just give the guy enough of what he’s asking for, or trade him. It’s not that hard. Or at least it wasn’t, until it got to this point.
That’s what all the defenses of the Bengals seem to be missing. Even if it IS 100% Hendricksen’s fault, then Cincinnati had ample opportunity to shop him around and get the best offer to make him someone else’s problem. Like tons of teams have done before them, and tons of teams will after.
There was just no need to paint yourself into this corner. There’s no excuse for it at all.
The only reason FA’s want to go to 2/3’rds of the franchises is for the bag. Bengals are in the 2/3 of poorly ran teams.
Bengals are such a crap organization
Burrow commenting how he’s disappointed is hilarious because they paid him and his 2 weapons top dollar. Teams can’t afford to pay every player top dollar to keep them, he’s in the wrong sport. MLB is where a team can buy championships.