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It truly is the end of an era. You could easily argue that Trey Hendrickson has been one of the pass rushers in the Cincinnati Bengals history.
He came in following the team, allowing pass rusher Carl Lawson to walk, which was not a popular decision at the time. Hendrickson came in following a 13.5 sack season with the New Orleans Saints. Despite that number, many attributed it to playing on the opposite side of Cameron Jordan. There were serious questions about how the signing would translate.
Safe to say Cincinnati nailed it. Unfortunately, Lawson’s poor injury luck continued after signing with the New York Jets, and Hendrickson went on to have 61 sacks in five seasons. His best came in 2024 when he led the league with 17.5 sacks.
Unfortunately, that was the beginning of the end, as it started an ugly contract dispute where Hendrickson wanted a multi-year deal with more guaranteed money than the Bengals were willing to give. This all went into a hold-in during training camp, where both sides eventually agreed on a deal that would increase his 2025 salary but add no years to his contract.
It seemed like after that, we were destined for this result. Hendrickson is now set to hit free agency as the team will not apply a Franchise or Transition Tag to him that would pay over $30 million guaranteed in 2026 if he signed it. Cincinnati was also unwilling to try to facilitate a tag-and-trade scenario where they could look for a suitor after applying the tag. That despite Hendrickson going into free agency as one of the top free agents available.