{"id":78166,"date":"2025-05-25T15:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T15:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/78166\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T15:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T15:38:10","slug":"lions-unlikely-to-pursue-bengals-de-trey-hendrickson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/78166\/","title":{"rendered":"Lions Unlikely To Pursue Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Bengals-Trey Hendrickson contract impasse<\/a> drags on, the possibility of a trade looms over the situation. The Lions, despite recent interest in elite EDGE players like Myles Garrett and Maxx Crosby, do not appear to be a Hendrickson suitor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press<\/a> says a pursuit of the 2024 sack leader would run counter to the Lions\u2019 current operation. After all, Detroit is in the midst of negotiations<\/a> with its own standout pass rusher, Aidan Hutchinson, and those negotiations may well culminate in an extension that catapults Hutchinson to the top of the EDGE market (currently topped by Garrett\u2019s $40MM average annual value).\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would therefore be quite difficult for the Lions to surrender notable draft capital to complete a Hendrickson trade \u2013 even if Cincinnati relaxes its demand of a first-round pick plus more<\/a> \u2013 and then authorize a contract near the top of the market for a second defensive end. Hendrickson\u2019s age (30) will likely preclude him from reaching the $40MM\/year club, but as Birkett suggests, a $35MM AAV is not out of the question.<\/p>\n

Plus, the Lions have other contractual matters to resolve. While Hutchinson is presumably at the top of GM Brad Holmes\u2019 agenda at the moment, Birkett says the club is looking ahead to a second deal for running back Jahymr Gibbs \u2013 who will be eligible for a new contract at the end of the 2025 season \u2013 and other internal cornerstones. While Birkett does not expressly say so, it could be that Gibbs\u2019 2023 draftmates like Jack Campbell, Sam LaPorta, and Brian Branch are already on Holmes\u2019 extension radar (Holmes finalized a record-setting extension<\/a> for safety Kerby Joseph just a few weeks ago).<\/p>\n

Of course, the prospect of pairing Hutchinson with Hendrickson is a tempting one. Hendrickson has earned Pro Bowl acclaim in each of his four seasons with the Bengals, and he has recorded 17.5 sacks in both of the past two seasons (his 2024 showing led to his first First Team All-Pro bid and placed him second in Defensive Player of the Year balloting). Hutchinson, who will turn 25 in August, averaged 10 sacks per season over his first two NFL campaigns and hit 7.5 sacks in just five contests in 2024 before suffering a season-ending leg injury.<\/p>\n

It was that injury that led to Detroit\u2019s in-season<\/a> trade interest<\/a> in Garrett and Crosby. After the team was rebuffed in those pursuits, it pivoted<\/a> to Za\u2019Darius Smith, and with Hutchinson ready to go for 2025, Birkett says the team will seek a complementary piece rather than a marquee addition.<\/p>\n

Smith, who was released<\/a> in a cost-cutting move in March, still profiles as a logical candidate to return. Holmes said last month he had not spoken with Smith\u2019s camp since the release<\/a>, but those comments were made before the 2025 draft. Now that the draft is in the books and clubs have a better idea of their roster needs, the two sides could circle back to each other. DeMarcus Walker, who visited<\/a> Detroit in April, also remains unsigned, as does Von Miller.<\/p>\n

The Lions re-signed<\/a> DE Marcus Davenport this offseason after his first year in the Motor City was cut short by an elbow injury. As of the time of this writing, Davenport is penciled in as Hutchinson\u2019s bookend on Detroit\u2019s defensive front.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Bengals-Trey Hendrickson contract impasse drags on, the possibility of a trade looms over the situation. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,113,7,1674,6,1503],"class_list":{"0":"post-78166","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-detroit-lions","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-jahmyr-gibbs","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-trey-hendrickson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114569223228259838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78166","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=78166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}