{"id":805600,"date":"2026-03-11T02:50:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T02:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/805600\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T02:50:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T02:50:34","slug":"colts-reportedly-remain-potential-dark-horse-for-all-pro-edge-trey-hendrickson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/805600\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts reportedly remain potential dark horse for All-Pro edge Trey Hendrickson"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to ESPN\u2019s Stephen Holder<\/a>, the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> \u2018shouldn\u2019t be ruled out\u2019<\/a> regarding ultimately landing prized Cincinnati Bengals All-Pro free agent defensive end Trey Hendrickson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Per Holder\u2019s ESPN colleague, Adam Schefter, no NFL team has been able so far to meet Hendrickson\u2019s hefty contract demands of a projected $30 to $4o million per year, but all it takes is one bold team. CBS Sports\u2019 Jonathan Jones reported earlier on Tuesday that there\u2019s a $10M annual gap between Hendrickson and his closest suitors <\/a>right now in ongoing contract negotiations.<\/p>\n

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Hendrickson is reportedly expected to make a formal decision tomorrow among interested teams (via The Athletic\u2019s Dianna Russini<\/a>). However, with Las Vegas Raiders fellow All-Pro edge Maxx Crosby failing his physical with the Baltimore Ravens\u2014and Baltimore shockingly \u201cbacking out,\u201d it\u2019s been speculated that the latter could be a late entrant into the ongoing Hendrickson free agency sweepstakes. <\/a><\/p>\n

As for the Colts, SI.com\u2019s Albert Breer reported earlier in the week that Indianapolis made a trade offer to the Bengals for Hendrickson last summer. <\/a> Obviously, the two sides were unable to successfully strike a deal, but there\u2019s already great familiarity between Colts veteran defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo and Hendrickson, as the pairing were both in Cincinnati from 2021-24.<\/p>\n

When coached by Anarumo defensively, Hendrickson had his best career seasons to-date, recording a whopping 35.0 combined total sacks from 2023-24\u2014capped off by NFL First-Team All-Pro honors in 2024 at his position.<\/p>\n

While the 31-year-old was limited to just 7 starts with the Bengals in 2025 by a lingering hip\/pelvis injury, he did still manage to record 4.0 sacks, 23 QB pressures, and a forced fumble. Per PFF, he still had a +90.0 pass rushing grade in limited action this past season\u2014which was 6th highest among all qualifying edge defenders.<\/p>\n

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Despite battling through lingering injuries last year, Hendrickson\u2019s \u2018pass rushing peripherals check out,\u2019 and he is only a year removed from being one of the best pass rushers in all of football\u2014when paired with Anarumo previously.<\/p>\n

A reunion between the two individuals in Indianapolis makes some real logical sense right now.<\/p>\n

With former 1st round starting defensive end Kwity Paye signing with the Las Vegas Raiders, the Colts currently have a hole at starting defensive end opposite Laiatu Latu\u2014as recent veteran addition Arden Key, formerly of the Tennessee Titans, seems ideally more like a rotational edge off the bench.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a matter of whether the currently salary cap strapped Colts, can make enough extra maneuvers to free up ample wiggle room for Hendrickson, but he clearly checks off a lot of outstanding buckets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to ESPN\u2019s Stephen Holder, the Indianapolis Colts \u2018shouldn\u2019t be ruled out\u2019 regarding ultimately landing prized Cincinnati Bengals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2059],"tags":[9093,117,256,2005,7,2004,392,2381,1981,4996,667,393,6563,6,57,4881,394,1503],"class_list":["post-805600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indianapolis-colts","tag-arden-key","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-colts","tag-football","tag-indianapolis","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-indianapoliscolts","tag-jonathan-jones","tag-kwity-paye","tag-laiatu-latu","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-maxx-crosby","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-stephen-holder","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-trey-hendrickson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116208272196363952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805600","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=805600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}