Several seemingly contradictory facts can all be true at the same time.<\/p>\n
Trey Hendrickson is one of the best edge rushers in the NFL. He\u2019s coming off a four-sack season in which he was injured more often than he wasn\u2019t. He was the Bengals\u2019 best defensive player in both 2023 and 2024. He\u2019ll be 32 in December.<\/p>\n
If the Bengals were to sign him to a multi-year deal \u2014 which I\u2019m 100% sure Hendrickson would prefer \u2014 they\u2019d have to guarantee more money than they\u2019re comfortable with. Luckily for them, and unluckily for him, they\u2019ve positioned themselves to use the franchise tag on him for the second consecutive season.<\/p>\n
The tag cost the Bengals $29 million last year. Tagging him again would cost $34.8 million. For an All-Pro player, that\u2019s a no-brainer, especially with Joseph Ossai headed for free agency. That said, it\u2019s not without risk.<\/p>\n
No one is saying Hendrickson is about to suddenly hit the wall that eventually comes for every player in his 30s \u2014 but it is coming. If the Bengals tag him and he turns in another injury-ridden season, that\u2019s money poorly spent. Still, given the cost of truly elite edge rushers, it\u2019s a risk worth taking.<\/p>\n
The Steelers are in a real pickle with T.J. Watt. He\u2019s also 31, but the Steelers signed him to a three-year, $123 million extension before the 2025 season. He carries a $42 million cap hit in 2026. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, before that extension, Watt totaled 30.5 sacks. Hendrickson had 35.<\/p>\n
Now the Steelers are stuck. They either pay a player coming off a seven-sack season $42 million, restructure his deal, trade him, or cut him. If they cut Watt after June 1, they\u2019d still owe him $62 million over the next three years \u2014 though only $10 million would count against the 2026 cap.<\/p>\n
All of this is to say the Bengals handled Hendrickson correctly \u2014 purely from a business standpoint.<\/p>\n
If they tag him and he gives them 10\u201315 sacks, they\u2019ll look like geniuses. From the player\u2019s perspective, though, it\u2019s not a great look.<\/p>\n
Players want to play for teams that reward them when they earn it, and nobody has earned it more than Hendrickson. Despite being the only consistently productive pass rusher on the roster in 2023 and 2024, he still posted back-to-back 17.5-sack seasons. Teams threw everything they had at him, and it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
Given what he delivered, it would\u2019ve been nice to see the Bengals reward him with a multi-year deal. I understand why they didn\u2019t \u2014 but I just feel like it\u2019s not a great look.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also tough to know what Hendrickson\u2019s 2025 numbers might\u2019ve looked like if he stayed healthy. In the final games he did play, his snaps were cut nearly in half. Even with just four sacks, there were only four edge rushers last season who logged more than 100 pass-rush snaps and posted a higher win rate than Hendrickson.<\/p>\n
So yes \u2014 the Bengals would be smart to tag him again. And coming off an injury, it might be Hendrickson\u2019s best bet.<\/p>\n
Spotrac projects he could sign a two-year deal worth just under $51 million, but he\u2019ll be 32 and dealing with a sports hernia that could require surgery. Teams may feel iffy about paying so much for a player who will be pushing 34 when his contract is up.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s another option, too.<\/p>\n
I doubt the Bengals could get a first-round pick \u2014 or even a second \u2014 but a third-rounder or a Day 3 pick for a proven but aging edge rusher coming off an injury could make sense for a team that doesn\u2019t love its chances of finding a better pass rusher in the draft.<\/p>\n
If the Bengals pull that off \u2014 let\u2019s say for a third-round pick \u2014 they haven\u2019t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to turning extra draft capital into productive players. But if they do, they\u2019d have a cheaper player on a multi-year rookie deal.<\/p>\n
Pipe dream? Maybe. Probably.<\/p>\n
Do you want the Bengals to tag Trey with the intention of squeezing one more year out of him?
Do you want them to tag him with the intent to trade him?
Or do you think he\u2019s earned the right to sign a multi-year deal elsewhere?<\/p>\n
Random Super Bowl Thoughts:<\/p>\n
This Super Bowl had about as much hype as a Week 7 Monday Night Football game.We were spoiled with three great Super Bowls in a row. The last two? Not so much. Sunday was\u2026 fine. Meh.I\u2019ve never listened to Bad Bunny, and I didn\u2019t understand a word he said. I dug the vibe, though, and I did understand the NFL\u2019s decision. Mexico and Brazil are the NFL\u2019s two largest international markets. Having a Spanish-speaking performer was a business move more than anything else.Sam Darnold won a Super Bowl. Sit with that for a second. The same Sam Darnold drafted No. 3 overall by the Jets in 2018. The Bengals still haven\u2019t hoisted a Lombardi, while the Seahawks have two \u2014 both with quarterbacks I\u2019d take Joe Burrow over 100% of the time. I\u2019m not saying Darnold didn\u2019t earn it\u2026. life\u2019s just not fair sometimes.Still glad the Seahawks beat the Patriots.What did you think of the Super Bowl?Welcome to the offseason. We\u2019re just over a month away from \u201clegal\u201d tampering.<\/p>\n
Money, get away
Go get a good job with more pay, and you\u2019re okay
Money, it\u2019s a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
A new car, caviar, four-star daydream
Think I\u2019ll buy me a football team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several seemingly contradictory facts can all be true at the same time. Trey Hendrickson is one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,4226,2424,2296,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-744395","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-analysis","12":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-free-agency","13":"tag-cincinnatibengals","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116051088730902887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744395","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=744395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}