Cincy Jungle
A very obvious thing confirmed by the franchise quarterback.
The Cincinnati Bengals have entered minicamp with only one veteran holdout. It is sack leader Trey Hendrickson, who is looking for a new deal from the team.
This situation has stretched most of the offseason, with the Bengals allowing Hendrickson to seek a trade.
When asked about whether the situation was a distraction, quarterback Joe Burrow was very frank about it, saying, “Of course” it’s a distraction.
Obviously, the team's best defender not being there and being in a very public holdout situation can be distracting for the team. I mean, Burrow is being asked about it.
Burrow also noted, "That's life in the NFL” when referring to wishing all the guys were there and under contracts. However, it is an improvement from last season when Ja'Marr Chase was holding in and Higgins was fighting for a new deal while practicing with the team.
This problem isn't unique to the Bengals. You can look around the NFL and see plenty of veteran players either refusing to practice or not showing up altogether. The Pittsburgh Steelers are actually in the same situation as T.J. Watt, who also didn't show up to the first day of minicamp.
Cincinnati simply needs to somehow get this across the finish line. They have just over $30 million in cap space currently after releasing Germaine Pratt. You can understand not wanting to exactly break the bank for a player at his age, but he led the NFL in sacks and actively wants to end his career a Bengal (at least he did at the start of the offseason).
If they wanted to drag this out like this it would've been better to have traded him off prior to the draft and use that capital/cap savings to try and replace him.
As it stands, we really do not know how this will end, but it is a frustrating distraction to have for a team that hopes to be a contender.
