It's been a quiet few weeks for the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson, which, considering how earlier this spring went, is about as good as you can ask for. As things currently stand, there isn't a lot to be optimistic about: Hendrickson doesn't have the new contract he's looking for, and the Bengals may not be getting their star pass rusher on the field anytime soon, if ever again.
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When Hendrickson threatened to sit out camp, games, or even the entire season, he seemingly put the ball back in Cincinnati's court. People connected to the team don't seem particularly optimistic that the Bengals are going to dish out another huge contract extension this offseason, and it feels like a trade is probably the most likely ending to this saga. And while it seems like there's isn't a ton of certainty about what direction the team will end up choosing, Bengals fans may have just gotten their first hint at when it could happen. In Albert Breer's latest roundup of NFL news that dropped on Monday, the Sports Illustrated NFL Insider talks a bit about when there could be movement.
Albert Breer floats potential date for movement on Trey Hendrickson contract issue
"The Trey Hendrickson thing needs deadlines to create movement, and I do think the Bengals mandatory minicamp, set for June 10–12, is one to keep an eye on."
It'll be interesting to see whether that's a real deadline, or just something the team is feeding Breer in hopes of calling Hendrickson's bluff. It does feel arbitrary – it's not like there are contractual clauses that trigger between now and then – which inherently makes it feel fake, but minicamps generally are more well-attended by bonafide stars than OTAs, so it's not surprising to see the last real team-organized practice of the offseason set as a 'hard' stop of sorts.
Something's going to happen this summer. Whether or not that's a good thing for the Bengals is still the great unknown, but it seems pretty likely that it's going to happen soon.