{"id":716500,"date":"2026-01-30T12:43:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/716500\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T12:43:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:43:16","slug":"trey-hendrickson-contract-projection-ahead-of-nfl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/716500\/","title":{"rendered":"Trey Hendrickson contract projection ahead of NFL Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cincyjungle.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> defensive end Trey Hendrickson is listed as the top available free agent in the NFL by several sites, including Pro Football Focus. After two years of contentious contract negotiations, the hope for the Bengals and Hendrickson to work out a long-term extension is all but gone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Many expect the two sides to part ways this offseason, and that outcome could take multiple forms. The Bengals could simply let Hendrickson\u2019s contract expire and let him hit the open market, or they could franchise tag him and look for a trade partner. Either way, Hendrickson is not expected back in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">PFF predicts Hendrickson\u2019s next deal to be for one year at only $21,000,000, with just $17,000,000 of that guaranteed. That is a big drop from the $30 million the Bengals paid him last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cHendrickson battled injuries throughout the 2025 season but still ranked sixth among all edge defenders in PFF pass-rush grade (90.0). He has now posted five consecutive PFF pass-rush grades above 85.0 and generated 23 total pressures on 177 pass-rush snaps this year,\u201d the article states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If that is Hendrickson\u2019s value on the open market, franchise tagging him at $34.8 million wouldn\u2019t make much sense for the Bengals. In fact, if Hendrickson can only get a one-year deal for $21 million, the Bengals may be in the mix to actually bring him back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">That, of course, is just a projection. Teams will pay above market value for players in March, and all it takes is two interested teams to start a bidding war. Hendrickson still likely ends up elsewhere in 2026, but a projection like that may crack the door open for a return to Cincinnati, even if it is just a little.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson is listed as the top available free agent in the NFL by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2424,1561,2296,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-716500","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-cincinnati-bengals-free-agency","12":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-news","13":"tag-cincinnatibengals","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115984112568135468","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716500","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=716500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}