Bengals never had interest in 2026 Trey Hendrickson

CINCINNATI — The Bengals and Trey Hendrickson put to bed one of the longest-running soap operas in recent Cincinnati sports history on Monday evening.

They agreed on a $14 million raise that still keeps Hendrickson in stripes through the 2025 season. Although now, the Bengals’ sack king will be happier and compensated more in line with his level of production.

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Like any great soap opera of its time, this had to end with a twist. In this case, it feels like both sides will wake up Tuesday to find out this was all a dream. Hendrickson will take the field to practice with his team for the first time since his three sacks helped put away the Pittsburgh Steelers on Jan. 4 and still be in the same spot.

He still won’t have long-term security. He’ll still need to bet on himself. He still won’t know where he will play next year. He’ll still fight the age stigma in the free-agent market. He still will be without guarantees that place him in the stratosphere of those he bested while coming in second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

Meanwhile, the Bengals still don’t have a long-term answer they can count on at one of the defense’s most important positions. They still are relying on a cast of unproven players to prop up the rest of the line around Hendrickson. And they are out an extra $14 million in exchange for Hendrickson’s happiness in 2025.

So, who exactly won here?

Most notably, the 2025 Bengals won. For now, that’s going to have to be good enough.

Word out of the building, and Hendrickson’s camp, is that he’s happy. Yeah, $14 million without giving up a year will do that. That matters. I hope this brings him some form of contentment.

Yet, in the words that one executive said to our Dianna Russini: “Took six months to lead here?”

This wasn’t much ado about nothing, though. This was much ado about one thing: The Bengals’ front office had no interest in 2026 Trey Hendrickson. Period.

Our league sources said the Bengals offered three years and $95 million to Hendrickson, but there were no guarantees beyond the first year. The second year of the deal would only pay him $23 million with $39 million in what amounted to funny money for 2027.

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Hendrickson had every right to tell the Bengals to kick rocks. Take as much as he can get and hit free agency in March. He was stuck. He’s been stuck since the day he signed that one-year extension back in 2023. He’ll have regrets about that for years, as it kept him from hitting the open market before last season. It handed all the leverage over to the Bengals here. They decided to use it to avoid being locked into Hendrickson beyond his 31st birthday this December. They were always worried about the age. They were worried about his lack of production against the run. They were worried about the future of a defense that, despite Hendrickson’s 35 sacks the last two seasons, was still one of the worst in football. They didn’t view him in the same stratosphere as Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase.

The contentious process landed in the only place the Bengals would let it — one more year on the books. They didn’t have to give Hendrickson the raise. It was the very least they could do, considering how lopsided these deals with him have been since he signed as a free agent in 2021 for four years and $60 million. They deserve a hat tip for that. And they did check off every one of the boxes Burrow drew on the board in January.

Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Trey Hendrickson and Mike Gesicki. Done, done, done and done. Many, many pundits shouted loudly into cameras, saying the Bengals would never pull off such a trick.

There were too many other, smaller, unchecked boxes, but for now, the club positioned itself to make a star-laden run at the organization’s first Lombardi Trophy. They will do so with a pissed off Hendrickson screaming around the edge, trying to prove his worth to the entire NFL with every pass rush. A frightening concept even by Blackout Trey standards.

We’ve seen this show before. A great Bengals player doesn’t get a contract, but still produces an elite season turbo-boosted by motivation. From Jessie Bates on the franchise tag to Tee Higgins to Jonah Williams to Ja’Marr Chase and even Hendrickson last year on his road to 17.5 sacks.

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Never mind, for now, what the Bengals could have done with his $30 million in free agency and a second-round pick they could have added by dealing Hendrickson in March before this one-year band-aid. That’s another column already written on another day.

The Bengals not only need to win this year to justify this decision, but need their young edge rushers to finally take the pressure off the bleak future without Hendrickson. The failed Myles Murphy pick cost them this money. If they could count on him, parting with Hendrickson would have been easy. They can’t. Can Shemar Stewart change that narrative? Can a draft pick or free agent do it next year? Those will be decisions for next year’s pie.

Cincinnati could, theoretically, use a franchise tag on Hendrickson in the spring, but it would be wildly expensive. Next year’s tag would be 120 percent of his current cap number. While we don’t have the exact details on that cap number yet, it should land in the $30 million-plus range, barring void years to spread out the cap hit, which pushes the franchise tag to $36-$40 million.

That would not be happening, but the money isn’t as important as the message already sent: The club doesn’t currently have interest in 2026 Hendrickson.

Now, things change, of course. There was a point midseason last year where Higgins was undeniably out the door, destined to leave in free agency with a big contract going to Chase. Things changed. Perhaps they do here, but the likely end will be that Hendrickson exits for a solid free agent haul in March, the Bengals receive a 2027 third-round compensatory pick and everyone goes about the days of their lives.

It’s hard to believe all that fighting and posturing amounted to this. Feels like it was all a dream. The Bengals and Hendrickson have one more ride to make it all something more.

(Photo: Katie Stratman / Imagn Images)

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