Not that it's a surprise that the Cincinnati Bengals didn't give Trey Hendrickson the payday he deserves. It's just that, after all these months of back-and-forth bickering over what should be the easiest contract extension to ever reward, the team continues to disrespect the reigning NFL sack king.
News broke on Monday — naturally, as I was playing in a golf outing, because of course this is what happened, and big shout out to the NFL staff for covering my rear — that the Bengals and Hendrickson had come to an agreement to get him on the field for Week 1.
My knee-jerk reaction upon seeing this story blow up my phone sporadically in the shabby service of the Denver-area mountainous terrain? "DOPE! They finally extended him!"
But no. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Hendrickson merely got a raise of $14 million to make his salary $30 million for the 2025 season.
I can hear some of you now, reading the headline, reading the words I just typed about how Trey got a $14 million raise, and screaming at me from behind your computer screens. How could you consider a $14 million raise a franchise-damaging half-measure.
If you have to ask, you simply don't know ball. Or how, you know, optics work for a football organization. I don't know what else to tell you.
Bengals throw Trey Hendrickson a bone for 2025 season, but it's not nearly enough
Don't know how many times I have to say it. Maybe other people are saying it and I just don't know about it. But the Bengals have bought themselves, oh, one year. And then guess what? We'll be right back here for more fun next offseason.
Hendrickson will ball out yet again, and instead of Cincinnati having a modicum of dignity toward the first-class professional and citizen that he is, they'll slap the franchise tag on him. You can smell this coming from a mile away. That long-term security Hendrickson is looking for? He'll never get it here.
And this isn't so much about Trey Hendrickson as an individual as the precedent the Bengals are setting. Their reputation as a cheap franchise is that for a reason. The reality is, they've extended the likes of Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins, albeit all at varying later stages than they should've gotten paid.
Same thing is happening here with Hendrickson, except it's not going to end in a multi-year contract. It's a casual, noncommittal relationship the front office is orchestrating with easily the team's best defensive player. He's their best free-agent signee of all-time. Hands down. The Bengals keep doing is low-balling Hendrickson at every single turn in spite of that.
This $14 million raise still only gets Hendrickson about 75% of the way to the top of the market for defensive ends. Just enough of a pay bump to not make his 2025 salary an insult, but not enough to be a meaningful step in the right direction for the organization.
In other words, yes, a half-measure. Cincinnati treating its own players this way doesn't bode well for the future. The only attractive part about playing for the Bengals is the fact that Burrow is the quarterback. There is literally nothing else to bring prospective free agents to the Queen City. Nothing.
Because Bengals management doesn't treat their players right. Even their biggest legends are forced to pay for their own flights and use discount codes at downtown Cincinnati hotels to attend Ring of Honor games. This according to Boomer Esiason. Not a joke. I mean, it is a joke that this is how the team does business with its famous alums, but it's what the reality is all the same.
And all you fans who defend ownership and the chief decision-making figureheads can shower me with all the positive-spun stories you want. Doesn't change how much they've fumbled this whole Hendrickson fiasco.
Until the Bengals get serious about compensating their players in a good-faith way, and treating them with the proper respect, they will....Never. Be. A. Consistent. Super. Bowl. Contender. Period. Trey Hendrickson's situation is further proof that the Bengals' old, frugal ways continue to hamper them to this day, and if they're not careful, they're going to basically light afire the career prime of the best quarterback they've ever had.
Like yay, congrats Bengals, on getting your elite pass-rusher on the field at long last. Took you long enough. I hesitate to give y'all credit for such a no-brainer decision. Can't wait for the 2026 offseason, where Trey is totally alienated again, requests a trade, then you power play him by slapping the franchise tag on him, and once more, only commit one year at a time.
Pathetic. Ridiculous. Just not good enough at the end of the day if you want to be a real contender for Super Bowls. Bengals X/Twitter peeps, save all your what-about-isms and comparing this team to others. It's apples to oranges.
I've said it several times in this space. I'll say it again. The Bengals should be doing all they can to ingratiate themselves to players, both for future contract negotiations with in-house talent and to attract free agents. And instead, they do everything they can to cause them to be taken aback.
Trey Hendrickson deserves better. The locker room deserves better. The coaching staff deserves better. The fans deserve better. Something's gotta give. Or, you know, maybe Joe Burrow can just carry the Bengals to a Lombardi Trophy and none of it will matter as much. But until that actually happens, the criticism over player management should persist with tremendous passion.