It ultimately feels obvious that the contract standoff between the Cincinnati Bengals and Trey Hendrickson meets somewhere in the middle of all the possible outcomes and he takes the field for the team in 2025.
But until then, most of the outsider-led conversations on the topic tend to exist on only the extreme ends of the possible outcomes.
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Case in point, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler hearing that Hendrickson is entrenched in his stance and this could spill into the regular season — if not the entire season:
“If no deal occurs, I’ve spoken to several people who believe Hendrickson very well might follow through on his promise to miss games or even the season. “He’s extremely dug in,” a source said.”
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But in that very same column, Fowler hears this from an anonymous NFC executive: “I still think they can come to a compromise, getting him above that $30-million threshold while covering themselves. The age [30] is something that must be a factor for them.”
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As we always stress, the truth and end result is probably somewhere in the middle. This is the third offseason in a row of Hendrickson contract drama, which has escalated as far as reports of his considering retirement. He inked a one-year extension recently to receive a bump in pay.
The Bengals left their conservative shell to grant him permission to seek a trade that materialized and both want to pay him more and seem more than willing to call his bluff about him sitting out games at the age of 30 and hurting his future value.
While this could bleed into training camp this summer, barring a shocker, the speculated extreme outcomes still seem highly unlikely.
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This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals, Trey Hendrickson contract drama earns extreme buzz around NFL