Trey Hendrickson didn't let his contract dispute with the Cincinnati Bengals limit his typical elite level of play in Week 1's 17-16 win over the Cleveland Browns, but the drama between him and the team is far from over.
Yes, the Bengals and Hendrickson reached an agreement on a pay raise for the 2025 campaign, but the multi-year extension with at least two seasons of guaranteed money that he sought wasn't fulfilled. That was already going to create problems for the 2026 offseason to say the least.
While it's worth cherishing the fact that football is back and Hendrickson is in Cincinnati for now, newly surfaced details about his contract and the void year it includes only thicken the plot.
Bengals positioned for tense franchise tag stand-off with Trey Hendrickson
CBS Sports writer and former agent Joel Corry explained the franchise tag implications of Trey Hendrickson's new contract, and how the void year diminishes the potential value of the tag.
Trey Hendrickson's adjusted contract has $13M in new bonus proration. His 2025 salary cap number is $25,166,668 since there is now a voiding 2026 contract year. For franchise tag purposes, 120% of prior year's salary is $30.2M.
— Joel Corry (@corryjoel) September 8, 2025
I don't blame Hendrickson for publicly voicing his frustrations with the organization when an acceptable deal couldn't be reached. I blame him even less so now that this fuller context is known.
The Green Bay Packers tried to trade for Hendrickson before they swung for the fences on Micah Parsons, who'll earn an average annual salary of $46.5 million on his historic contract. Parsons is a younger player deserving of a higher pay rate based on where he is in his career. That said, the chasm between Parsons and Hendrickson is far too large.
Cincinnati has all the leverage to slap the franchise tag on Hendrickson at a bargain rate for next season. If it's the exclusive tag, Hendrickson must stay with the Bengals. In the event of a non-exclusive franchise tag, trade negotiations can take place, but Cincinnati can either match a prospective suitor's offer sheet, or ship Hendrickson away in exchange for two first-round picks.
There's little chance any team, no matter how much they like Hendrickson or how well he performs in 2025, will want to sacrifice those premium draft assets. In other words, the Bengals have the chance to low-ball Hendrickson once more, and secure him at a rate at which he'd be considered grossly underpaid.
Still a lot of season left. However, it baffles me that the Bengals continue to do this to themselves. Their mere raise for Hendrickson now looks like more of a franchise-damaging half-measure than I initially anticipated. All he did in Week 1, by the way, was record a key third-quarter sack that led to Jordan Battle's interception on the next play, and log a staggeringly elite 41.7% pass rush win rate.
I'm not saying Cincinnati doesn't merit applause for an of-late more aggressive approach to upgrading the roster. Those efforts are already paying dividends as of Week 1. The biggest haters also can't deny the team's generally strong initiative of retaining their own players, either.
It's just frustrating as can be that Hendrickson can't seem to earn the Bengals' respect with all he's done for the team since joining the fold in 2021 for the run to Super Bowl LVI.