DE Hendrickson and Bengals Not Mutual on Contract Extension

Shay Patel writes about the controversy regarding Bengals Right Defensive End Trey Hendrickson and his new contract.

Trey Hendrickson asserting his dominance on the field. Image Credit: Rory Parks

After an impressive season by Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson, one of the league’s best defensive ends, putting up 46 combined tackles, 33 solo tackles, and 17.5 sacks, the Bengals still haven’t been on mutual terms with Trey Hendrickson for an upcoming extension. Hendrickson, who’s on his final year of his contract, said there are plans to update it for the upcoming year. Trey Hendrickson was upset when Katie Blackburn, the Bengals’ executive vice president, commented on his contract talks and said “I think he should be happy at certain rates that maybe he doesn’t think he’d be happy at. I think some of it is on him to be happy at some point, and if he’s not, you know, that’s what holds it up sometimes. So you know, it takes him to say yes to something and also, we have all the respect in the world for him.” Trey expressed his displeasure on “The Pat McAfee Show” and said “First off, yesterday was April Fools so I was traded to all 31 teams and had like a hundred different contracts. The one thing I was hoping for was an April Fool’s joke. Called my agent Harold Lewis, found out it was not, and that was a little disappointing because the communication has been poor over the last couple of months.”

Trey is the final major key piece player for the Bengals off season. The Bengals took care of star wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, signing Chase to a 4 year $161 million contract and Higgins to a 4 year $115 million contract. He’s mentioned before that he’s not even trying to become the highest paid defensive end or “first in line” to get a deal done with the team. The Bengals have granted Hendrickson a permission to seek a trade earlier in the off season, but there has been no progression from that. When asked if he had a deadline in mind on when to get a deal done he said he doesn’t know whether he “can put a timestamp” on that. He also said, ”There’s things I’m willing to do and things I’m not willing to fudge on. I don’t think I want to play for incentives that will be out of my control. I don’t think I want to play on a short-term contract and see where it goes.”

Hendrickson noted that the prices of defensive players in the NFL have gone up in recent years. In the 2025 off season alone star defensive players such as Maxx Crosby and Myles Garrett have signed huge contracts to stay with their current teams. Hendrickson also stated, “I see that as that’s the street. We’re on the D-end National League Street. The market value for that is going up like it did for wide receivers last year. Where I fit in that road is all up to discretion. We’re willing to talk about those things. With the market continuing to go up, I’m not going to apologize for that, because I’ve been basically asking for the same thing every year, to be solidified as a Cincinnati Bengal for life.”