{"id":748806,"date":"2026-02-13T08:30:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T08:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/748806\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T08:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T08:30:24","slug":"nfl-insider-weighs-in-on-trey-hendrickson-and-what-bengals-may-do-in-nfl-free-agency-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/748806\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL insider weighs in on Trey Hendrickson and what Bengals may do in 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> fans are skeptically hopeful, if that\u2019s a thing, that the front office is going to \u201creally spend\u201d and build a better team around Joe Burrow. Fans are hoping most of their resources go towards rebuilding a defense that has been really bad, to put it lightly, over the last three seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">There are some really good free agent defensive players going into this offseason, so the Bengals can absolutely sign one or more of them. They need to do that as they did in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI could see the Bengals aggressively pursuing free agents on defense,\u201d Breer said. \u201cShould Hendrickson depart, landing someone like Eagles free-agent Jaelan Phillips would make a lot of sense. A free-agent safety, like Seattle\u2019s Coby Bryant or Kansas City\u2019s Bryan Cook, would, too. We\u2019ll see if they get the commitment from ownership to spend to add to a unit with some promising young pieces (Shemar Stewart, DJ Turner II, and Demetrius Knight Jr.).\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Bryant and Cook are great players to go after. Not only are both of them Super Bowl Champions from really good organizations, but they also both played college football at Cincinnati. That matters. Winners, and players who played college football in the Queen City. Getting those two guys here in Cincinnati would help a young secondary that has potential.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Speaking of Hendrickson, Breer didn\u2019t hold back on what he thinks the future holds for the Bengals\u2019 All-Pro edge rusher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI\u2019d be pretty surprised if Hendrickson ended up back in Cincinnati next year,\u201d Breer said. \u201cThe Bengals gave him a big raise, up to $29 million last year, and only got seven games out of him, and there were real questions on how much he did to push through injuries. (Particularly when juxtaposed with how maniacal Joe Burrow was in trying to return from his toe injury ahead of schedule.)\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It was always curious when Zac Taylor would give updates on Trey Hendrickson leading up to each game, quickly saying that he was doubtful to play in the upcoming game. There are just so many blurred lines with Hendrickson that it makes sense for the Bengals to move on from him and go in a different direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Bengals fans are skeptically hopeful, if that\u2019s a thing, that the front office is going to \u201creally&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,1561,7574,2296,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-748806","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-news","12":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-rumors","13":"tag-cincinnatibengals","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116062390455862166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748806","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=748806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}