The farcical standoff is over.
The Cincinnati Bengals and star defensive end Trey Hendrickson have finally drawn a line under their contract dispute.
With just 10 days before the season kicks off, Hendrickson has agreed to a reworking of his existing one-year deal.
The pay rise bumps his 2025 salary up from $16 million to $30 million, a million of which comes through performance-related incentives.
Did Trey ‘win’ the negotiation?
No. I would describe it as a nil-nil draw at best.
While the agreement ends the holdout and Hendrickson can finally start training with the team, it fails to provide the stability he was seeking.
The 30-year-old has been vocal all summer about his desire for guaranteed money and multi-year security. He and his wife love the Queen City, and he made it very clear that staying was his preferred option.
The team also wanted him to stick around and allegedly offered him a three-year, $95 million contract. On the face of it, that sounds like a no-brainer. But negotiations stalled over a lack of guaranteed money in year two.
This is an all-too-common sticking point for this particular front office – unless your surname is Burrow or Chase. Even Tee Higgins failed to secure second-year guarantees in his recent extension.
Having said he would not play on his current deal, which had a year left to run, Hendrickson has almost doubled his money. But everything else is exactly as it was before this soap opera began.
It seems the two parties have settled for some sort of messy compromise, where neither got quite what they wanted.
Paying for the past… or investing in the future?
The timing of the stalemate has been particular awkward. His peers – T.J. Watt, Myles Garrett and Maxx Crosby – all secured long-term deals with significant guaranteed money this summer.
According to the man himself, Hendrickson was not looking to reset the market in that way. Having posted 17.5 sacks in each of his last two seasons, he just wanted to get paid fairly for his services.
The issue is that the Bengals see contracts as payment in lieu of future production, not as rewards for past performance.
Last year’s Defensive Player of the Year runner-up will turn 31 during the season, and the powers that be clearly lack confidence that his form will last.
Kicking cans and playing tag
So, annoyingly, we end up with a sticking plaster rather than a long-term fix. Sure, the team retains the lynchpin of its otherwise-feeble pass rush but only for the coming campaign.
That leaves the door open for Hendrickson to walk next offseason and we would be back to square one. The can has just been kicked down the road.
If they let him go next spring, the Bengals would be due a middling (3rd–4th round) compensatory pick, assuming that they do not impact that with other free agency moves.
Alternatively, they could use the franchise tag. Retaining Trey for one more year might risk fanning the flames of discontent further, even if it netted the defensive end an estimated $36–39 million.
I suspect that the tag-and-trade route might be more likely, and have already marked the trade deadline – 4pm on 4 March 2026 – on my calendar.
What now?
Despite the scepticism and, in some cases, ridicule from the national media – I am looking at you, Stephen A. Smith – the Bengals retained all their stars.
Even with Joe Burrow’s mega-deal, they re-signed Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Mike Gesicki and now Trey. No small feat.
How it all falls into place down the line remains to be seen but that discussion can definitely wait for another day. Most of us are sick and tired of all these contractual shenanigans. We just want to watch some football without off-field distractions.
When you look at the roster, it is clear this team really needs Trey, even just for one more year. At least that will give the likes of Myles Murphy and Shemar Stewart time to step up and potentially fill the gap.
But for now, #91 just needs to knuckle down in practice and get back up to speed, in the hope that he suits up in Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns.
