Cincinnati Bengals fans can't get away from hearing about Trey Hendrickson. The star pass-rusher was granted permission to seek a trade earlier this offseason but the team has turned down offers for Hendrickson and are asking for a ton in return, at least according to Jason La Canfora of The Washington Post. These aren't the actions a team would take if they were looking to trade a player.
Well, even with feeling like the case, a trade could very well end up happening, especially if Hendrickson doesn't get the deal he wants this week. According to La Canfora, an NFL executive said (on Hendrickson), “If they can’t get him signed this week, I think he’s gone by the draft.”
Dangerous update on Trey Hendrickson reveals harsh reality for Bengals
Bengals fans aren't going to love this comment because the hope was that the team could get a deal done with Hendrickson. That being said, if they were to trade him, the time to do that is as soon as possible (with the best available deal, of course) because if they wait until after the draft, the assets acquired in the trade won't be able to be used to make the Bengals better this year and isn't that the goal right now? To get better for the 2025 season?
This has felt like a never-ending saga but after the Bengals managed to re-sign several star players, the hope was truly that they'd find a way to make Hendrickson happy as well. La Canfora touched on that in his writeup, pointing out, "The odds of him keeping all of these high-end players always seemed bleak" and also stating, "If Hendrickson is still a Bengal after the draft, sitting on his existing deal, a lengthy holdout is probably in store."
Re-signing Tee Higgins was a massive surprise (even though the team had expressed they wanted to the entire time) but it's incredibly hard to keep everyone happy. Hendrickson might find himself on the outside looking in, which has to be frustrating for him considering how good he was on a bad defense.
If this quote from the NFL executive is true, perhaps we will see some movement on the Hendrickson situation. Will he still be a Bengal by this time next week or will he be calling another NFL city home? Time will tell.