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On Monday, the Cincinnati Bengals agreed to a restructuring of star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson’s contract that will keep him around for the upcoming season and allow him to hit unrestricted free agency a year from now. The deal brings to an end over a month of trade speculation and rumors surrounding the only player keeping the Bengals’ defense from being truly awful.
Recently, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported on some of the other offers that were floated before the two sides eventually came to an agreement.
“The Bengals originally offered a three-year, $95 million deal to Trey Hendrickson that did not include guaranteed money in the second year, per sources,” reported Russini on X, formerly Twitter. “Hendrickson and the Bengals were able to reach agreement a half hour ago on this reworked deal that will end his hold-in and see Hendrickson participate in practice tomorrow with his Cincinnati teammates.”
Recent reporting that the Bengals were looking to trade Hendrickson had fanbases from all 31 other teams scrambling to put together their best packages for the disgruntled star. While those talks will stall for now, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them pick back up during the season, lest the Bengals risk losing him for nothing in the next free agency period.
This would become more likely if the Bengals are as bad as many pundits project them to be in the upcoming season, returning most of a defense that was putrid throughout the 2024 season and didn’t do much to get better–and that’s with Hendrickson in the lineup.
While Joe Burrow and the offense figure to have another strong year, it remains to be seen if Hendrickson alone can lift the defense to new heights.
The Bengals will kick off their 2025 season on the road against the Cleveland Browns on September 7.
The post Bengals rumors: The initial contract that Trey Hendrickson turned down from Cincinnati appeared first on ClutchPoints.
