If there's one team that'd rather concentrate on the schedule release than literally anything else right now, it's the Bengals. During what's supposed to be the quiet part of NFL team calendars, the Bengals have found themselves in headlines for all the wrong reasons this week after Trey Hendrickson's ... insightful? ... press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
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So now, instead of cryptic pictures of pop-tarts and 90-second videos featuring memes from three years ago, the Bengals are dealing with a tiny little PR crisis featuring arguably the NFL's best defensive player. But otherwise the offseason's going pretty well!
Speculation about why the Bengals refuse to sign Hendrickson to a long-term extension vary depending on who you ask, but this week, ESPN's NFL reporter Dan Graziano took a stab at guessing what exactly is going wrong in Cincinnati, and how he sees it playing out. Get your most exasperated groan ready.
The Bengals are botching the Trey Hendrickson stuff in the most Bengals way possible
"The Bengals' long-held rule was to guarantee no money outside of the first year -- specifically, the signing bonus. They broke this rule for quarterback Joe Burrow a couple of years ago and broke it again this year for Chase and Higgins. I don't know for a fact that future-year guarantees are the holdup in Hendrickson's deal, but it's a fair assumption to make based on what I've heard from sources.
And if you're wondering why it would be a holdup for Hendrickson when it wasn't for Burrow, Chase and Higgins, the answer is age. Burrow, Chase and Higgins were all 26 years old at the time of their contract extensions. Hendrickson is 30."
Well, I for one could have never guessed that something as obvious as a contract extension for the NFL's sack leader this year simply boils down to a team owner and their outdated views on compensation. It's amazing how this entire saga is framed as some complicated cap riddle when in actuality it really just comes down to the fact that an owner who historically hates writing checks is tired of writing checks. How out of character.
Ever since Myles Garrett pulled off one of the more convincing bluffs in recent memory earlier this offseason, it's hard to say with any confidence that these press conferences and public statements mean a whole lot. But when Hendrickson is playing in Green Bay next year, let's just all try our best to remember exactly why.