Recently, the Cincinnati Bengals at least temporarily ended their contract dispute with star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson by offering him a major bump in pay for the upcoming 2025 NFL season, which he agreed to. Hendrickson is still set to enter free agency at the end of this year, which could reignite the saga once again, but for now, Bengals fans can rest assured that their team's star (and possibly only above average) defensive player will be in uniform this season.
It was a long journey to get to this point from where things stood over the last few weeks, and recently, Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Inquirer broke down just how novel the idea was that ended up coming to fruition.
“In talking with Trey Hendrickson, we learned that the Bengals had never offered him the 1-year pay raise before he agreed to it on Monday,” reported Conway on X, formerly Twitter. “Trey also said there was not a contract presented to him he would have seriously considered.”
However things materialized, Bengals fans will certainly be happy to have their defense's lone beacon of hope on the field this season.
Still, everything isn't exactly sunshine and rainbows in Cincinnati. Even with Hendrickson in the lineup last year, the Bengals' defense struggled mightily, becoming the main reason that the team didn't make the playoffs despite a strong year from Joe Burrow and the offense.
While Hendrickson may keep the Bengals' defensive unit from falling off a cliff, he alone will not be enough to elevate it to good, or likely even average, status this season. It's unclear where the Bengals are expecting to get more production on that end of the field than they did last year.
In any case, the Bengals are slated to kick off the upcoming 2025 season on the road against the Cleveland Browns on September 7 at 1:00 PM ET.
