Unless you’ve been under a rock as a Cincinnati Bengals fan, you know Trey Hendrickson has mega beef with the Bengals FO surrounding his current contract situation. You can point fingers both ways, but the reality is, now it’s becoming more and more serious. In fact, the only reason he showed up today was because Zac texted him threatening fines on him if he didn’t. Subscribe to our newsletter using the popup or below for more!
Trey Says He Won’t Play
Today, the first day Trey has shown up to the facility for voluntary OTAs, he spoke with reporters on several different topics. One reporter asked if he’d play, in which he replied in typical player-who-is-unhappy fashion, a very long drug out response to which he essentially said ‘I won’t play on my current contract,’ but did say that he hopes it doesn’t come to that.
Trey said that he showed up today because he was pissed off that Zac Taylor would send him a text threatening him with fines if he did not show up, and today was his way of saying ‘enough is enough.’ He also mentioned that he had not had any dialogue with the team since the NFL Draft where the Bengals took Stewart with their 17th overall pick.
How It Affects The Team
Anytime there’s holdouts, it’s always going to affect the lockerroom in some form or fashion. It seems like the Bengals have drama every damn year so I don’t think it’ll be too bad, but when you have a bottom 5 defense and a new DC, it’s probably not the best thing to have going on. Trey is one of the only vets on the defense.
Trey Hendrickson is technically locked into a deal, so the team has some sort of leeway with that being said. But as a Bengals fan, I have to side with him on all of this, especially since we’ve watched the Bengals consistently dump on players that perform AND want to be here with lowball offer after lowball offer. 2025 will be his age 31 season, he has a base salary of $15,800,000 + a $18,666,668 cap hit.
What Do The Bengals Do?
The reality is, yes, he’s 31, but he’s done nothing but elevate and the Bengals have always operated under “we aren’t going to pay you your 3rd contract, bro” and it’s caused a ton of negative effect on the team. Andrew Whitworth…comes to mind. I’d call Trey’s situation very similar. The Bengals need to take a good long hard look in the mirror and get the dude an additional 2 years. Your D line is shambolic without him. You can’t develop EDGE’s to save your life, no matter how many you take in the draft. PAY. HIM.
