No one would accuse any of the Cincinnati Bengals' primary non-player leadership of being cutting-edge, hyper forward-thinking, or particularly innovative in any way that's meaningful.
Sorry! Those are just the facts. When you keep self-owning yourself at every turn and overcomplicating things, you tend to end up burning multiple years of an elite quarterback's prime. And, you know, alienating some of your other superstars.
Case in point: Reigning Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Trey Hendrickson. The defending NFL sack king is questionable with a hip injury in Week 7, and until/unless somebody else on the Bengals' defensive front steps up, he'll keep being the subject of trade rumors.
Bengals reportedly refuse to trade Trey Hendrickson amid 49ers' hot pursuit
Given the annual contract drama between the Bengals and Hendrickson — and given that the latest round of negotiations only resulted in a pay raise for 2025 and no extension — it's no surprise to hear that Hendrickson is in the news as a prime trade candidate.
Cincinnati is in a tailspin, having lost four straight. Although Joe Flacco's arrival should stabilize the quarterback position and perhaps lead to more winning, the Bengals need to start racking up Ws on Thursday against the Steelers to ensure Hendrickson sticks around.
That November 4 trade deadline is still a ways away, however, and there's almost a delusional confidence that keeps coursing through Bengals headquarters, according to ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler:
"The 49ers have been scanning the trade market for pass-rush options. I'm told the Niners consider Trey Hendrickson an ideal fit for their defense if the Bengals would part with him for reasonable compensation. But I'm also told Cincinnati has no plans to trade Hendrickson at this time. Despite a 2-4 record, Cincinnati plans to remain all-in on this season."
That's right. The Nick Bosa-less San Francisco 49ers are keen to acquire Hendrickson. Fowler's colleague, Dan Graziano, was also told the Bengals don't want to trade their only legit pass-rusher.
I wish I could make sense of all this, because on the surface, this is making my head spin a little. The Bengals didn't want to pay Hendrickson what he was worth all offseason. They got him at a discount. Now all of a sudden, thanks to the front office's inability to build Joe Burrow a competent offensive line, the team is crashing out, and they still don't want to try to sell high on Hendrickson under any circumstances?
Look, once Burrow went down, there was a near-zero chance the Bengals were going to the Super Bowl, never mind the playoffs. Color me skeptical that Joe Flacco is going to lead Cincinnati even to the postseason with no run game, a "mid" defense, and a lack of mobility to overcome a poor pass-blocking offensive line.
We're on course as one united Who Dey Nation to collectively lose it over another dose of horrid Hendrickson hoopla in 2026 before the games actually start. Hey, front office, if you believe so much in the guys you've drafted at Hendrickson's position, why not mess around, trade him, and see how that turns out!
How out of touch with reality does the Bengals brass have to be to think that hanging onto Hendrickson means they're still "all-in" for the 2025 season? Just do right by him for once and ship him away while the wheels inevitably fall off.
If there's one thing you can count on about this football operation in Cincinnati, it's that the vision for the organization will be consistently inconsistent.