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Different stripes? Trey Hendrickson is back, but these are same, silly Bengals
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- Different stripes? Trey Hendrickson is back, but these are same, silly Bengals
Just when you thought the Cincinnati Bengals might actually be changing their stripes, they sent a fresh signal that Joe Burrow 's championship window will actually open about as far as one in a 12th-floor hotel room – like the one Boomer Esiason has to pay for .
The newest evidence that the Bengals really aren't that serious about winning came Monday, when they belatedly reached a contractual resolution with All-Pro defensive end Trey Hendrickson . If you didn't read past that headline, you might think it was a positive development – last season's NFL sack leader (he had 17½) getting more money and preparing to return to practice for a defensively hindered team known for its notoriously slow starts, like the one that crippled it in 2024. But if you dig a bit, it becomes apparent that the Bengals have simply relapsed into the same old cheapskates who last won a Super Bowl … well, never.
Hendrickson's arrangement for the 2025 season benefits just about nobody. Maybe Burrow and an offense that may – may have to – lead the league in points gets a few extra possessions and key stops given Hendrickson's sublime ability to bag opposing quarterbacks, his 35 sacks since 2023 and 54 pressures in 2024 also league pacesetters.
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Otherwise, what's been achieved here? Something adjacent to nil. Maybe worse.
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Hendrickson, who was seeking a raise and long-term security, achieved the former – to a degree – but not the latter. He'll pull down an extra $14 million or so this season, meaning he'll make at least $30 million in total, but is unsigned for 2026. He effectively becomes a player operating without a safety net, much like one bearing a franchise tag. This occurs at a time when four of his peers ( T.J. Watt , Myles Garrett , Danielle Hunter and Maxx Crosby ) signed extensions this offseason averaging more than $35 million – $40 million per in the cases of Watt and Garrett. And while Hendrickson is 30, those other players are also roughly the same age, not to mention generally less sturdy than a guy who's missed two games since coming to Cincy in 2021.
Hendrickson's contractual Band-Aid – and make no mistake, it's one of those smaller circular ones you use for a shaving nick – comes despite his production and durability. Meanwhile, over the past two years, he's watched this same organization make Burrow the league's highest-paid player and wideout Ja'Marr Chase its highest-paid non-quarterback – temporarily in both cases – while receiver Tee Higgins , never a Pro Bowler in five NFL seasons, pulled down a four-year, $115 million extension. But apparently there's no financial bandwidth to reward Hendrickson even though Cincinnati is scheduled to have nearly $55 million in cap space in 2026, per OverTheCap , among the top quartile in the NFL.
Not that it's his brand, but (relatively) miserly Bengals owner Mike Brown didn't even take the opportunity to give Hendrickson a one-year balloon payment of $43 million or so – actually reasonable given what he's done for this team over the years – which would have thrown a nice little socket wrench into Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' interminable (or are they non-existent?) negotiations with Micah Parsons , who will undoubtedly overtake Watt as the league's next top-paid non-QB whenever Jones ends his charade.
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But there's a bigger picture being painted (again) in The Queen City.
Asked about that proverbial championship window before the 2022 playoffs, when Cincinnati lost the AFC championship game, Burrow said: "The window is my whole career."
You've got to love the swag of a slinger who did lead the Bengals to Super Bowl 56 to conclude the 2021 season and is almost universally regarded as one of the NFL's top five quarterbacks, leading the league with 4,918 yards and 43 touchdowns through the air last season.
And yet Cincy hasn't been back to the postseason since that 2022 AFC title round loss at Arrowhead Stadium. Even with the heroics of Burrow, Chase – he won the NFL's receiving triple crown in 2024 – and Hendrickson, the team went 9-8 a year ago. The Bengals remain virtually intact in 2025, albeit a far more expensive version, yet appear to have lost personnel ground to their AFC North rivals, the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers .
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2025 NFL RECORD PROJECTIONS: How many games to the Bengals win?
And what happens a year from now?
Brown mollified Burrow by minting Chase and Higgins, but now his team – one that doesn't ooze discretionary dough the way Jones' does – has a lot of cash tied up in that offensive trio. Hendrickson? He's scheduled to be a free agent next March … unless Brown is willing to eat a $36 million franchise tag, which may cost even more depending on how much Parsons and maybe Aidan Hutchinson further boost the wage scale for pass rushers.
Sep 25, 2023; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson (91) reacts after a play with defensive tackle BJ Hill (92) in the second half against the Los Angeles Rams at Paycor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports
Barring that, why would Hendrickson want to come back? And in the wake of the message Brown just sent him, why would other Pro Bowl-caliber players want to join a team that's rarely loosened its purse strings during free agency anyway? Quarterback Carson Palmer and wideouts Carl Pickens and Chad Johnson are among the many former Bengals who have been at bitter loggerheads with Brown in years past. Just last week, longtime Cincinnati star and former league MVP Esiason revealed that the team isn't paying for hotel rooms so Ring of Honor players like himself can attend the ceremony for this year's enshrinees in October.
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But that tracks with the franchise's frugal ways, Brown resistant for years to the notion of upgrading the club's practice environment among other aspects of its working conditions. He won't even confer the general manager title to Duke Tobin, the man who does that job without the label.
Burrow, Chase and Hendrickson are first-class players. But their ranks will probably thin in 2026 given their second-class employer refuses to fully embrace what's required to get Burrow and this roster though a Lombardi window likely to realistically remain jammed shut.
Maybe Burrow gets back to the Super Bowl ... just seems probable he'll also be paying for airfare and lodging.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trey Hendrickson contract shows cheap Bengals haven't changed stripes
