CINCINNATI — As I walked across the intersection of Central Avenue and West Pete Rose Way outside Paycor Stadium, it felt like a normal, boring OTA Tuesday in May.

That is, until a man in a golf shirt and black hat driving a large SUV sitting at the red light called out my name and waved me over.

It was Trey Hendrickson. He wanted to talk.

As I stood at his window in the intersection and a couple of cars came uncomfortably close to my backpack, we moved to a safer spot for Hendrickson to politely make clear his objective of surprisingly flying in for what turned into his media day in Cincinnati.

No, this wasn’t the intersection of Central and Rose anymore. This was the intersection of surreal and absurd.

Or, given the recent past of the Bengals, just another Tuesday in Cincinnati.

This has too often become the reality show around these parts. Two years ago, Joe Burrow’s contract (and calf) kept him off the field in training camp. Last year, Ja’Marr Chase watched practices in a hat until days before an opener they would lose to New England, largely due to a lack of offensive rhythm. There were trade requests by Jonah Williams, Tee Higgins and Hendrickson and a public challenge of the front office from the $275 million quarterback.

Frustration over franchise tags and constant off-field drama has been distracting and has impacted on-field results. Last year, it boiled over and eventually stole the playoffs from Burrow’s MVP-caliber campaign.

It appeared the Bengals learned their lesson when it came to allowing distractions to usher toxicity in the front door. They got deals done with Chase and Higgins. Even Mike Gesicki stuck around. The club checked every box Burrow laid out in his rounds of interviews, directing contract traffic in February.

All but one.

That one, and the inability to handle it effectively, continues to blow up in their face. In the last case, it blew up on their practice field.

Looking like he was somewhere between his job as a school resource officer and afternoon tee time, Hendrickson chatted with new defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery, Bengals public relations and security staffers, along with a few teammates. In a world of jerseys, cleats and workout shorts, he stuck out like his 17.5 sacks on last year’s defense.

This was a mess.

An undeniably avoidable mess. On both sides.

The Bengals granted Hendrickson permission to seek a trade a week before free agency. They knew where he stood in the Chase-Higgins pecking order. They knew the money available. They should have known the direction the edge rusher market could go. Teams were understandably interested in adding the runner-up for defensive player of the year. They were going young with new defensive coordinator Al Golden and could sell high on a 30-year-old edge rusher. They could have used the $16 million in free agency to supplement the pass rush, used the extra draft pick to add another young rusher and allowed the collection of top picks to start over. There would be no drama. There would be no OTA media days. There would be a franchise that paid its best players and found a solution to make the balance sheet work in a way that made sense for them.

Or, if they didn’t believe in that method, pay Hendrickson what he wanted and make it work for a club with $68 million available in 2026 cap space (ninth overall).

Either way, be definitive and proactive — for once.

Instead, the same old passive problems that caused this mess in the first place showed up again. So they were left dealing with an outburst after coach Zac Taylor let Hendrickson know about the potential fines outlined in the CBA associated with missing minicamp.

“I’m a Floridian, so there’s unprovoked shark attacks and there’s provoked shark attacks,” Hendrickson said Tuesday. “And the comments that are being made with whatever happened at the combine, whatever happened at the owners’ meetings and the text I got yesterday, this is not something where I’m just twiddling my thumbs, thinking, ‘How can I get the next one up?’ Most of my teammates will agree, I don’t spare my opinions. I kind of stay out of the media for that reason, because I am an emotional player, and after a loss, it’s a lot harder to talk than after a win, especially in the circumstances we had last season. So I carry it with a tremendous amount of respect, but these things are provoked. I would love to say to sit quiet is a good strategy. It is clearly not.”

Here’s the full interview after #Bengals practice today between Trey Hendrickson and local reporters.

He wanted to clear the air and get some things off his chest. He did just that.

(Much more to come)https://t.co/1qUPGyyhSb

— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) May 13, 2025

There is one side of the argument where Taylor and the Bengals were merely messaging Hendrickson to know what was coming down the line in the CBA, so it doesn’t take him by surprise and that they’re still hoping to get a deal done.

Hendrickson didn’t see that view. He saw a shark attack, it seems.

Hendrickson is passionate. He admitted he’s “working on my patience,” but Tuesday it pushed him to wake up and choose chaos. The angry response of a player who feels out of options and frustrated in finding ways to collect what he believes he’s worth.

“I’m not going to apologize for the rates of the defensive ends being paid in the National Football League,” Hendrickson said.

He sees Myles Garrett, Danielle Hunter and Maxx Crosby making tens of millions more than him and wants to earn his value in the last big contract of his lifetime. He signed a one-year extension in 2023 and says he did so under the impression that the organization would do right by him if he continued to play at a high level. He didn’t anticipate it coming to this point. Perhaps he would have ended up franchise-tagged if he hadn’t signed it, perhaps not, but the bottom line is he did, and there’s nobody he can point the finger at but himself for that spot.

“It was something that aligned with my family’s goals at the time,” Hendrickson said. “It gave us a little bit of ability to plan our family, another year to see where I’ll be, and that aligned with the goals that I had for my career here in Cincinnati.”

Everyone has an opinion on those goals and how he should handle this. Everyone sees the narratives spinning out of control. He’s grasping to recapture them with his voice and feel like he’s found any leverage.

The problem is he has none. There aren’t many levers players can pull in today’s NFL. Not in his situation. Inevitably, he has to decide if he’s willing to back up his words, stated explicitly on Tuesday, that he refuses to play on his current contract or be willing to take the best offer the Bengals have on the table.

Saying you won’t play on May 13 is much different than saying it on Sept. 7.

Tuesday’s comments and admissions won’t move the needle with Mike Brown and the family ownership. While this Tuesday might have looked surreal, it’s just another May contract dispute in a lifetime full of them. The Bengals are willing to live this life, for better or worse.

“It’s a weird dilemma,” Hendrickson said.

Weird, for sure, plus surreal, disappointing, shark-infested. All those descriptions fit.

For all the words spoken Tuesday, I keep coming back to the same one: Avoidable.

(Photo: Sam Greene /Imagn Images)