CINCINNATI — When the Cincinnati Bengals report to training camp on Tuesday, Trey Hendrickson won’t be there. The Bengals star is currently about 800 miles away from Ohio in Northern Florida, which means one of two things happened: Either he forgot he was supposed to report to training camp or his contract standoff with the Bengals has gotten so ugly that he decided not to show up.
You can probably figure out which one it is.
Hendrickson hasn’t said much this offseason about his contract, but he did make it VERY clear back in May that he won’t be suiting up this year under the terms of his current contract, which is set to pay him a $15.8 million base salary in 2025.
Since then, the two sides have been working on getting an extension done, but they haven’t been able to come to an agreement on a new deal. So when will he report for training camp?
Let’s take a look at where things currently stand between the Bengals and Hendrickson, and then make a prediction on when he might show up.
Bengals seem optimistic about getting a deal done
If there’s one reason why a negotiation could get done soon, it’s because the two sides definitely agree on at least one thing: Hendrickson deserves a raise.
Duke Tobin, who serves as the team’s de facto general manager, made it very clear on Monday that the Bengals are looking to reward Hendrickson, who led the NFL in sacks in 2024.
“He’s a guy who’s been very valuable,” Tobin said. “He’s earned a raise and an extension and we’ll continue to see if we can come together on that. Having good players is a good problem to have and we’ve got a lot of good players and we’ve got a lot of highly paid players and fitting together is what we’re working for.”
Bengals owner Mike Brown, who rarely does interviews, also spoke on Monday, and he seemed optimistic about getting a deal done with Hendrickson in the near future.
“I think we’re in a good spot,” Brown said of the negotiations. “I hope this thing comes together soon. I’m just going to leave it at that.”
Brown also emphasized that getting Hendrickson signed was a priority for the Bengals.
“I think he’s proven to be an important player for us,” Brown said. “He’s a valuable player, he makes a difference. We want to get him signed.”
If the owner and the general manager are both on board with giving Hendrickson a substantial raise, you’d think a deal would get done soon, but that hasn’t happened. So what’s the holdup? Glad you asked.
NFL training camp 2025: Ranking top five storylines, including Micah Parsons, Trey Hendrickson contract drama
Jeff Kerr
Why is there a stalemate?
Hendrickson wants a huge raise that will bring him closer to the top of the market at his position. Back in January, the highest-paid pass rusher was making $34 million per year (Nick Bosa), but Maxx Crosby ($35.5 million) Danielle Hunter ($35.6 million), Myles Garrett ($40 million per year) and T.J. Watt ($41 million per year) have all gotten new deals over the past six months, which has reset the market.
There’s been no indication that Hendrickson wants to be the highest-paid player, but it’s pretty clear that he wants a substantial raise that would more than double his base salary for 2025, which is scheduled to be $15.8 million (Back in mid-May, Pro Football Talk reported that the Bengals have offered up to $28 million per year and it’s unknown whether that offer has changed much since then).
According to ESPN, one major issue that’s holding up the deal is the amount of guaranteed money. The Bengals are only offering one year of fully guaranteed pay while other pass rushers — like Garrett and Watt — have been given three years of guaranteed money. It has been the Bengals standard for years to only hand out one year of guaranteed pay, but they have deviated from that structure for several star players, including Joe Burrow.
Right now, the guarantees just aren’t there.
The other big issue — and it might just as big as the financial aspect of the deal — is the length of the contract. Hendrickson wants a long-term deal, but the Bengals are looking to do something more short-term in the neighborhood of two years, which Hendrickson is adamantly against.
“We’re just not seeing eye to eye on the structure,” Hendrickson said back in May. “It seems that a shorter deal is something that they’re pushing pretty hard. That puts in the same place as I was in 2022, where I have to renegotiate the next year.”
Hendrickson was given a one-year extension back in 2023 and he doesn’t want to go down that road again.
“If … I’m playing at a better level than I was last year, then, next year, we’re just kicking the can down the road,” Hendrickson said.
The All-Pro also noted that getting a long-term deal done would be a sign of mutual respect.
“That’s where my values lie and that also allows me to stop having to negotiate every offseason about something that has been almost four years of doing,” Hendrickson said.
If the Bengals concede and give him a longer deal, they might not be willing to concede on the guaranteed money, so it will be interesting to see how this negotiation plays out.
Hendrickson has been somewhat cryptic on social media
The Bengals star has been pretty quiet about his negotiation since May, but he did share a video on social media, marking the first time in a month that he had shared anything.
Sometimes, players will share cryptic messages on social media, but Hendrickson’s post seems to be a little bit more clearer than most players in his situation: He shared a three-and-a-half minute highlight video that showed off most of his 17.5 sacks from 2024.
The 30-year-old also added a bible verse as the caption to his video: 1 Corinthians 16:13.
That specific verse says, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.”
When you’re in a contract stalemate and you share something that talks about standing firm and staying strong, that seems like a sign that Hendrickson won’t be budging from his demands.
Why the Bengals should work to get a deal done quickly
The Bengals might not want to meet Hendrickson’s demands, but if they don’t get a deal done soon, things are only going to get more complicated. Watt, who is just three months older than Hendrickson, got a new record-setting deal last week. And soon, the expectation is that Micah Parsons will reset the pass-rushing market, and if that happens, that could raise Hendrickson’s asking price.
When will this end?
The Bengals front office isn’t known to budge much in contract negotiations and it seems like Hendrickson is also dug in, which is why the two sides are at an impasse. Hendrickson did request a trade earlier this year, but that definitely won’t be happening.
“We are not going to trade Trey,” Brown said Monday. “We are working on getting it done.”
Based on the comments from both Tobin and Brown, it’s pretty clear that the Bengals understand how important Hendrickson is to the team, which means this could be the rare case where someone negotiating with the Bengals gets exactly what they want. Unlike the Shemart Stewart negotiation, which has drawn the ire of the front office, both sides seem eager to get a deal done here.
The Bengals have had a series of slow starts under Zac Taylor and a lot of that has happened because there’s always been some sort of setback or distraction at training camp. In July 2021, Joe Burrow was coming off a torn ACL that he suffered in 2020. In July 2022, Burrow suffered a ruptured appendix that caused him to miss almost all of training camp. In July 2023, he suffered a calf injury early in training camp that knocked him out for almost a month. In 2024, Burrow wasn’t 100% at the start of camp as he was coming off a torn ligament in his wrist that he suffered in November 2023. The Bengals also had to deal with Ja’Marr Chase‘s contract situation during training camp last year.
All those issues have added up for the Bengals, who are 1-9 during the first two weeks of the season since drafting Burrow in 2020. This is a team that doesn’t need any distractions heading into training camp and that might be motivation enough to get a deal done with Hendrickson.
Prediction: Hendrickson was in Cincinnati over the weekend, which may have been a goodwill sign from him that he was hoping to have his contract done before the start of training camp. That won’t be happening now, but that doesn’t mean this has to drag out. The Bengals and Hendrickson both want to get the deal done, so the prediction here is that the two sides get something done by Aug. 1. That timing would allow Hendrickson to make his training camp debut during an Aug. 2 practice that will be held in front of thousands of fans at Paycor Stadium.
Go to Source
Author: John Breech
July 22, 2025 | 11:06 am
