{"id":33107,"date":"2025-05-08T07:20:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T07:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/33107\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T07:20:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T07:20:14","slug":"bengals-safety-responds-to-pay-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/33107\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals Safety Responds to Pay Cut"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the player acquisition phase of the spring over and offseason workouts underway, the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> won\u2019t be in position to make major moves. But edge rusher Trey Hendrickson\u2019s contract extension looms, and as his holdout continues, a flurry of procedural moves could be made to make his big pay day easier to handle.<\/p>\n

Among those options is manipulating the contracts of some underperforming veterans.<\/p>\n

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Cincinnati<\/a> obliged by cutting part of safety Geno Stone\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cStone, who was scheduled to earn $6.475 million this year, agreed to a one year $4.9 million contract, a reduction in salary of $1.575 million,\u201d Over the Cap reported<\/a>. \u201cThe Bengals guaranteed $1.5 million of the new contract, which given the Bengals history is a virtual guarantee on his entire year\u2019s salary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stone was a candidate for a pay cut because of his immense struggles in 2024. To his credit, he was durable and versatile, but his performance between the splash plays was underwhelming.<\/p>\n

Despite generating four interceptions and 88 tackles, Stone was a replacement-level player. Stone was willing to admit that he struggled while accepting his pay cut.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt the end of the day, I\u2019m here and I\u2019m going to give it my all wherever I am at,” Stone told reporters<\/a>. “That is something I owe them. I signed here and I want to own what I want to do for them. Honestly, I was upset with myself a lot last year. Just the way my play was early in the year. I got put in situations I really never had in my career, and that had nothing to do with anyone else. It was just me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stone ranked 34th of 37 qualified safeties by Pro Football Focus\u2019 defense grade and dead last in run defense.<\/p>\n

With that extra cash, it\u2019s easy to connect Cincinnati to its disgruntled edge rusher. If Stone\u2019s biggest contribution is helping retain Hendrickson, he\u2019ll be viewed favorably.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeno Stone said he was disappointed in his play last year so he understood the ask to take a pay cut but he also considered saying no,\u201d Laurel Pfahler wrote<\/a>. \u201cSaid if the Bengals are clearing cap space there\u2019s a reason and he assumes it\u2019s going to Trey Hendrickson. Said his cut was best for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stone isn\u2019t alone in needing to improve for the betterment of his unit. Locked into a starting job, he\u2019ll cost Cincinnati<\/a> less in 2025, although continued struggles could prove to be even more expensive.<\/p>\n

Related: Bengals Adjust Safety Contract<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Bengals Top Rookie Ranks High Among Bust Candidates<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the player acquisition phase of the spring over and offseason workouts underway, the Cincinnati Bengals won\u2019t be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,7,6486,6,1503],"class_list":{"0":"post-33107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-cincinnatibengals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-geno-stone","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-trey-hendrickson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114471005443303283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}