{"id":791144,"date":"2026-03-04T09:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T09:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/791144\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T09:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T09:58:13","slug":"bengals-star-defensive-end-becomes-free-agent-reports-say-whio-tv-7-and-whio-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/791144\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals star defensive end becomes free agent, reports say \u2013 WHIO TV 7 and WHIO Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">CINCINNATI \u2014 A Cincinnati Bengals star defensive end is now a free agent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">[DOWNLOAD: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whio.com\/mobile-apps\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.whio.com\/mobile-apps\/\">Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">The Bengals declined to give defensive Trey Hendrickson the franchise tag, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/2028985532735267287\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/2028985532735267287\">ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">Each NFL team is allowed to grant the option to tag one player with an expiring contract. It allows them to keep them for one more season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">This means that Hendrickson will become an unrestricted free agent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">TRENDING STORIES:<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">He thanked his teammates, coaches, staff, fans, and the organization in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVb8p1ekkjm\/?img_index=1\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVb8p1ekkjm\/?img_index=1\">social media post<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">\u201cThank you for the opportunity to play the game I love at the highest level. The last 5 years have been filled with Great wins &amp; Tough losses, personal achievements &amp; humbling adversities,\u201d said Hendrickson in an Instagram post. \u201cI was &amp; always will be proud to have worn the Cincinnati Bengals logo &amp; honor the history behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">The 31-year-old defensive end played in only six games during the 2025 season due to a hip injury. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">Hendrickson had 16 tackles, four sacks, one pass defended, and one forced fumble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">He concluded by thanking Bengals fans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">\u201cThank you for supporting me in the relentless pursuit of winning. You\u2019ve made the Jungle Roar when I hunted QB after QB! Memories of those moments will live in my heart &amp; mind forever. The hard work this city puts in, and its support for our Bengals, made it easy to empty the tank for this fanbase! I could not be more proud of the high standards we have for our city &amp; football team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">Cincinnati went 6-11 this past season and missed the playoffs for the third straight season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph\">[SIGN UP: <a href=\"https:\/\/membercenter.whio.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/membercenter.whio.com\/newsletters\">WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 lofITx body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 A Cincinnati Bengals star defensive end is now a free agent. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[265,228,227,256,2296,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-791144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116170319763704364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791144","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=791144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}