The stalemate between the Cincinnati Bengals and the NFL’s defending sack leader, Trey Hendrickson, continued this week and seems as if it will endure forever. The draft came and went without a trade for Hendrickson, and now the discourse between the two has seemingly become less than cordial and is very public.
However, NFL insider Ian Rapoport appeared on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday and said he thinks the two sides will reach an agreement.
“I would be surprised, as of right now, if he got traded only because like…let’s say the Bengals held out for a premium draft pick. We’re talking first-rounder. For someone as talented as Trey Hendrickson, that would make a lot of sense.
“The problem is value-wise, not every team wants to give up a first-rounder and then a new huge contract to someone who is 30 years old, just philosophically,” he said on the popular show.
“Like I remember when Bill Belichick was coaching the Patriots before North Carolina, he was the greatest coach of all time with the Patriots. I don’t think he ever traded for a player and then gave him a new contract like some people philosophically don’t believe in that. So if you’re gonna do that now, even if you found a first-rounder, you’re not gonna use it until next year, so that hurts the Bengals this year, because if it happened before the draft, you could have just gotten a player to help you this year. So the timing makes a trade very hard.
“I still believe the Bengals are gonna pay him.”
The first 95% of that is something we already know. If the Bengals couldn’t trade him for a 2025 draft pick, there’s no way they’ll let him go for a 2026 pick, especially when he could still help the team on the field. Because of this, the Bengals very much need Hendrickson to play unless they’re comfortable with turning the team’s ability to rush from the edge over to Joseph Ossai, Myles Murphy, and rookie Shemar Stewart
So this puts both the Bengals and Hendrickson in a difficult position. The Bengals need Hendrickson on the field. They can’t go from having only one reliable pass rusher to zero and expect that to translate to wins. At the same time, a 30-year-old edge rusher surely can’t sit out a season and try to come back to the NFL for big money at 31 years old and a full 12 months removed from action. In reality, the Bengals and Hendrickson need each other.
Hopefully, the last five percent of Rapoport’s long-winded response is correct.