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Trey Hendrickson calls Bengals' contract offer 'atrociously low': Report
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- Trey Hendrickson calls Bengals' contract offer 'atrociously low': Report
The Cincinnati Bengals require veterans to report Tuesday for the start of training camp . Defensive end Trey Hendrickson – the team's star defensive player – will not be there.
Hendrickson and the Bengals have been stuck in a contract extension negotiation standoff all offseason.
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On Tuesday's episode of "Good Morning Football," Manti Te'o shared details of a recent conversation he had with Hendrickson, in which the disgruntled reigning NFL sack leader said Cincinnati's latest offer and money guarantees were "atrociously, atrociously low."
Te'o's report came during a segment on the NFL Network program during which the show's analysts had to rate their confidence that a deal would get done on a scale from 1 to 91 (Hendrickson's jersey number).
However, Te'o said based on his recent conversation with Hendrickson that "it's a 0 from me."
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"Trey even told me, him and his representatives would even take less years to reduce the length of the contract. And the Bengals organization said 'no,'" Te'o said.
Te'o and Hendrickson were teammates on the Saints between 2017 and 2019.
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Barring a breakthrough in negotiations, Hendrickson is set to enter the 2025 season on the last year of the contract extension he signed ahead of the 2023 season. He'd make $16 million this year on the current deal, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero .
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The defensive end also posted a picture to his Instagram story of a highway with a Florida geotag, seemingly showing that Hendrickson is not even in the state of Ohio for the start of Bengals training camp.
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Since Hendrickson signed with the Bengals in 2021, he has been their best defensive player.
After starting his career with only 20 sacks in his first four seasons with the Saints, Hendrickson has excelled with the Bengals, totaling 57 sacks in the last four years.
He has made the Pro Bowl each season with Cincinnati. In 2024, he topped the league with 17.5 sacks, earned his first, first-team All-Pro honor and was the runner-up to Patrick Surtain II in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
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The 2024 season marked the second consecutive year that Hendrickson recorded 17.5 sacks.
Hendrickson is not the only disgruntled edge rusher the Bengals have not been able to satisfy in contract talks.
Their 2025 first-round pick, Shemar Stewart , remains unsigned and continues to hold out . If Stewart doesn't sign by Week 10, he would become ineligible to play this season and could re-enter the 2026 NFL Draft.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bengals' Trey Hendrickson has strong words for contract offer: Report
