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Trey Hendrickson says Bengals have lower off contract talks

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  • Ben ChildCould 12, 2025, 01:10 PM ET

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      Ben Child covers the Cincinnati Bengals for ESPN. He joined the corporate in July 2019. Previous to ESPN, he labored for numerous newspapers in Texas, most lately at The Dallas Morning Information the place he coated faculty sports activities. He offers every day protection of the Bengals for ESPN.com, whereas making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN’s NFL exhibits and ESPN Radio applications. A local of Grapevine, Texas, he graduated from the College of North Texas with a bachelor’s diploma in journalism. He’s an adjunct journalism professor at Southern Methodist College and a member of the Asian American Journalists Affiliation (AAJA).

CINCINNATI — Bengals defensive finish Trey Hendrickson stated the staff has lower off contract talks amid a dispute relating to a brand new deal.

In an announcement to ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday, Hendrickson stated “no communication has taken place between my camp and the group” following the NFL draft in April.

Hendrickson additionally stated the presents introduced by the Bengals “didn’t replicate the imaginative and prescient we shared and have been promised” if he continued to play at a excessive stage. Based on Hendrickson, discussions towards a brand new deal have stalled out.

“Reasonably than utilizing collaboration to get us to some extent to convey me dwelling to the staff, THEY are not speaking. I’ve been eagerly awaiting a decision of this example, however that is onerous to do when there is no such thing as a dialogue and an evident lack of curiosity in reaching mutual targets,” Hendrickson stated within the assertion.

Hendrickson, 30, is coming into the ultimate 12 months of his contract and is coming off his finest season within the NFL. He led the league with 17.5 sacks final season and was named to The Related Press All-Professional staff, marking one of many Bengals’ first choices to the checklist since 2015. Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati’s different All-Professional choice final season, obtained a brand new $161 million contract this offseason that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in league historical past.

Hendrickson has made the Professional Bowl in every of his 4 seasons with Cincinnati. In 2023, he was given a one-year extension on the four-year, $60 million deal he signed as a free agent in 2021. Final offseason, he requested a commerce after the staff opted to not give him a brand new deal. He in the end reported for voluntary exercises.

Hendrickson’s feedback Monday have been the most recent public growth within the ongoing contract saga. Final month, in an look on “The Pat McAfee Present,” Hendrickson expressed his disappointment with Bengals govt Katie Blackburn’s feedback made on the NFL’s annual league assembly on his contract talks with the staff.

“I feel he ought to be blissful at sure charges that perhaps he would not assume he’d be blissful at,” Blackburn stated April 1. “I feel a few of it’s on him to be blissful in some unspecified time in the future, and if he isn’t, that is what holds it up generally. It takes him to say sure to one thing. We’ve got all of the respect on this planet for him.”

Throughout his look on McAfee’s present, Hendrickson stated he was dissatisfied with Blackburn’s feedback “as a result of the communication has been poor over the past couple of months.” He additionally stated the Bengals haven’t communicated along with his agent instantly about his contract, saying that has “been one thing that is been somewhat bit irritating.”

Final Friday, Bengals coach Zac Taylor didn’t have an replace on Hendrickson’s contract when he met with the media after the staff’s rookie minicamp.

Hendrickson is ready to earn $15.8 million in base wage this season, the ultimate 12 months of his contract. On McAfee’s present, Hendrickson stated that he isn’t searching for to change into the highest-paid defensive finish or “first in line” to get a deal however that there’s an urgency to get one thing executed. The Bengals will start organized staff actions later this month.

Hendrickson is not the one defensive finish on the roster seeking to resolve a contract subject. Shemar Stewart, the seventeenth choose on this 12 months’s draft, didn’t take part in final week’s rookie minicamp as a result of his contract remained unsigned.

A supply advised ESPN on Monday that Stewart shouldn’t be anticipated to take part in exercises till a contract is signed. Stewart opted to not signal a participation waiver whereas the perimeters work on an settlement due to a hiccup within the negotiations. Based on a supply, the quantity of wage paid as a camp bonus was a decrease proportion than what was given in 2024 to the Minnesota Vikings‘ Dallas Turner, who was additionally drafted seventeenth general.



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