Bengals contract drama with Trey Hendrickson quietly continues: Will 2024 NFL sack leader play in Week 1?

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CINCINNATI — It’s now been two weeks since Trey Hendrickson reported to training camp, and although he’s attended every practice since showing up in Cincinnati on July 30, the Bengals‘ star pass rusher hasn’t participated as he continues to look for a new contract. 

Now that James Cook has gotten a new deal from the Buffalo Bills, that leaves Hendrickson, Micah Parsons and Terry McLaurin as the last three remaining hold-ins in the NFL. Although Parsons and McLaurin have both made headlines with each of them requesting a trade over the past few weeks, Hendrickson has been quietly going about his business. 

The 2024 NFL sack leader, who did request a trade back in March, has been a constant at each Bengals practice, and every day, he does mostly the same thing: He watches the defensive line closely and helps out in any way he can. As a matter of fact, if Hendrickson wants a raise, he might want to ask the Bengals to start paying him as an assistant coach, because that’s essentially what he’s been doing since arriving at camp. 

One player Hendrickson is constantly chatting with is Shemar Stewart. The first-round pick had his own contract squabble with the Bengals, and now that he’s in camp, he’s been talking to Hendrickson daily. 

“His biggest thing is that me and you are not the same,” Stewart told Fox 19 this week. “But if I can give you a little couple details to make your game better and you can flip it to where it works for you, at the end of the day you become a little bit better. One day, eventually, I’ll be like him.”

Zac Taylor would obviously prefer to see Hendrickson in pads, but he’s also thrilled to see his veteran pass rusher helping out the younger guys on the team. 

“For him, being a veteran player, being able to come in and pass down the knowledge that he’s gotten from his own experience — from past players that have given him that knowledge — I appreciate that he’s out there helping these young guys get better,” Taylor said recently. 

Although Hendrickson has been talkative at practice, he wasn’t in the mood to answer any questions about his contract this week. However, he did offer three words when he was asked how late in the process he could get a contract done and still feel comfortable playing in Week 1. 

“I’ll be ready,” he told CBS Sports. 

Based on that comment, it sounds like he plans on playing as long as a deal gets done before the Bengals kick off their regular-season opener against the Browns at 1 p.m. ET on Sept. 7. Hendrickson was also asked if he felt more or less optimistic about his contract situation after being in camp for two weeks, but he chose not to comment. 

The big issue that’s holding up the deal is the amount of guaranteed money. According to ESPN, the Bengals are only offering one year of fully guaranteed pay while other pass rushers — like Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt — have been given three years of guaranteed money. It’s been the Bengals’ standard for years to only hand out one year of guaranteed pay, but they have deviated from that structure for several star players, including Joe Burrow, so what Hendrickson is asking for isn’t unprecedented. 

When Hendrickson reported to camp two weeks ago after racking up $50,000 per missed day in fines, he didn’t sound overly optimistic about getting a contract done anytime soon. 

“Things are exactly the same,” Hendrickson said of where contract talks were in late July compared to early June. 

It was an interesting answer, especially when you consider that just one week earlier, Bengals owner Mike Brown had sounded optimistic about getting a deal done. 

“I think we’re in a good spot,” Brown said of negotiations on July 22. “I hope this thing comes together soon. I’m just going to leave it at that.”

On the same day as Brown’s interview, Hendrickson painted a less optimistic picture of the negotiation, telling Manti Te’o that the offer from Cincinnati was “atrociously low” when it comes to guaranteed money. 

The highest-paid pass rusher (Watt) is now making $41 million per year, but Hendrickson isn’t looking to get that type of money. Although he led the NFL in sacks last season with 17.5, he doesn’t want to be the highest-paid non-quarterback, but it’s pretty clear that he wants a substantial raise that would more than double his base salary for 2025, which is scheduled to be $15.8 million (Back in mid-May, Pro Football Talk reported that the Bengals have offered up to $28 million per year and it’s unknown whether that offer has changed much since then). 

The Bengals have some leverage, because Hendrickson is under contract for 2025, so if he sits out any games, then he’ll miss out on a $877,777 paycheck for every game that he’s out, but that seems to be money that Hendrickson is willing to sacrifice. He’s already said that he won’t play this year under his current deal, so something is going to have to happen soon or the drama is going to ramp up as we get closer to the regular season. 

For Hendrickson, his leverage comes from the fact that the Bengals absolutely need him. In Cincinnati’s preseason opener against Philadelphia, the first-team defense got gashed up by the Eagles‘ second-team offense in a 34-27 loss. 

Both sides have plenty of incentive to get a deal done. For the Bengals, they can’t afford another slow start. Last season, Ja’Marr Chase sat out all of training camp and it showed as the Bengals offense struggled in a shocking 16-10 loss to the New England Patriots in Week 1. 

Overall, the Bengals are 0-6 in the first two weeks of the season dating to 2022, so this is a team that needs to avoid getting off to a slow start. Getting Hendrickson under contract sooner rather than later would certainly help a defense that can’t afford to be missing its biggest star once the games start counting. 

Burrow is in his prime and if the Bengals want to put the best roster they can around him, that would have to include getting Hendrickson on the field as soon as possible.  

This news was originally published on this post .

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