Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - FRUSTRATION: Trey Hendrickson CONFRONTS Bengals Management | Who Will BLINK First in Contract standoff?

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

Is Trey Hendrickson's contract dispute with the Cincinnati Bengals heading towards a showdown? As the Bengals navigate this critical negotiation, the stakes couldn't be higher. This episode unpacks Hendrickson's candid interview on the Pat McAfee Show, where he voiced his frustrations and aspirations for a long-term deal. James Rapien and Jake Liscow react to the comments, share thoughts on Hendrickson's future, why this could be the start of a battle and so much more!Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Cincinnati Bengals are not offering Trey Hendrickson what he wants. He made that very clear on Wednesday. Let's break it down. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Locked On Bengals podcast. I'm Jake Liskow. He's James Rapine, and we are Locked on Bengals, this show covering the Cincinnati Bengals

every day. since 2016 between James Rapine and myself. And you're in the right place if you're looking for your everyday Bengals news. Shout out to all the everydayers out there. Thank all of you for making Lockdown Bengals your first listen on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today we're going to just dive into the Trey Hendrickson situation again. We got new details from his interview on the Pat McAvey show.

Of course, we've got Katie Blackburn's quote to talk about that was reported on by those down in Florida and that aspect of things from the Bengals perspective that we need to talk about as well. And this episode brought to you by Game Time where you can create an account and use code locked on NFL to get $20 off your first purchase of tickets. And James, there is a lot to get to here with these Trey Hendrickson comments. And we both got repeating themes in terms of communication. We've got analogies.

from Trey Hendrickson on the Pat McAfee show, we got some details, I think from Trey Hendrickson that we haven't heard him previously allude to in terms of some of the things that he wants and perhaps a suggestion in him saying what he wants in terms of things that he's been offered that maybe he doesn't want. Where do you think this starts? Where does it start? I'll tell you where it's headed. Let's start with where it's headed. And it's a three-letter word. And it's not win. It's war. It's going to be a war now. that's what it is. Trey Hendrickson going on a national show like the Pat McAfee show,

which by the way, Trey, just come on Lockdown Bengals anytime I mean. It's to go there in like 16 hours after that quote, maybe 18 hours, after that quote came out from Katie, which I'm going to read in just a second. That rubbed a lot of people the wrong way,

and we'll share thoughts on that quote in a bit. But Trey's pissed. And I don't use that word, lot on it. He's clearly angry. And in angry, yeah, he's smiling on the Maccfee show, but mad, because when quotes like this roll out, he should be happy at certain rates that maybe he doesn't think he should be happy at. Some of it

is on him to be happy at some point. And if he's not, that's what holds it up sometimes. It takes him to say yes to something. We have all the respect in the world for him. He's been a great player. We're happy to have him. And so maybe we'll find a way to get something to work. We're just going to see where it goes. And so that's the quote. And on the surface, that doesn't seem too crazy, at least to me. But when you have the communication issues, when I think the Bengals and Trey are universes apart in how they're looking at his value and what he wants versus what they're offering. And I think that's fair to say. I don't know the exact numbers.

I'll go out on a limb, Jake, and say they're not offering him $33 million per. I'll go out on a limb and say they're not offering him a bunch of guaranteed money. And so... That's not out on a limb. For those of you that that's not clear to, that is not out on a limb at all. No. That's not a leap.

Oh, not a leap. That's zero vertical. It's NFL Combine season. Like, if you're doing the vertical leap, that's zero. That's zero on broad jump. That relative athletic score is none. void. It's, look, this is going to be a battle, war, whatever you want to say, I'll use those two words, and I'm going to continue to, and that's no disrespect to anyone that actually is doing real battles,

real wars, we're talking about football here. But in reality, we know how the Bengals are in these situations. And for Trey to go on there and do that 18 hours after seeing that quote or whatever it was, I mean, she talked yesterday at like 4 p.m. The article started to come out around 7 or 8 p. and by 115, 120 on Wednesday, the next day, Trey Hendrickson's on Pat McAfee's show saying he feels disrespected and we're going to dissect this thing. Like that's put put your, put your helmet on. This is going to be a battle. Yeah.

And the interesting thing to me about, well, there's so many interesting things. I don't know why I started a sentence that way because there's really so much to get to here. But one of the things that stands out to me when you're talking about this battle and it does seem like it's going to drag out. Hopefully it doesn't. This is something that we've talked about wanting to see this team avoid this year. Don't let this thing get into training camp again. Don't repeat the distractions from last year where your entire team is now watching one of the best players on the team in a contract dispute when they're trying to get ready for a football season.

Not participating in training camp. And Trey brings up the point. Trey was very sneaky about this. He's sneaking his negotiating points. there right like sam hubbard's not there anymore and now you want to have a defensive line room where you don't have trey hendricksson and training camp either you have a bunch of young guys or guys on prove it deals one year deals for cam sample and joseph osi and rookie deals and that's your edge rusher room and it's a hell of a point isn't it i mean he's bringing up some good point

And we'll talk about some of these others because he has the good real estate analogy. He's talking about the other contracts that are going on. The quote that he was asked about directly and his reaction to the quote, some words about respect and action versus words. It doesn't take a PhD and read in between the lines to see that he's not happy. But in terms of this thing dragging out, Trey's also talking about the off-season program right around the corner. and he wants to participate.

At least that's what he's saying, right? And this is, I'm sure, a negotiating employee as well to some degree to try to light a fire and say, hey, I want to be there for the offseason program. I want to be there for OTAs. I want to be there when the rookies are getting their first impression. And think about what Zach Taylor had to say on Monday about the camaraderie that he wants to build where there's no more locker room split in preseason because the locker room's done. So you don't have to put the rookies in one.

locker room and the veterans in the other, which was the case in training camp last year while they were finishing the locker room. And the lineman in another. Like it was three different locker rooms. Yeah. And so avoiding that and getting everybody in the same room and building and Tray Hendrickson's out there. One of the guys that's a leader on your defense.

And yes, this isn't all the Bengals fault for those of you out there that they want to apologize for the Bengals and this. Trey Hendrickson's agent and his decision to agree to that extension. is certainly a speed bump in their goal of achieving a long-term deal. But trade is very clear on what he wants at this point. And that was one of the big takeaways from me is he's very, very clear in what he's been asking for. And he said for three years, I know that the extension, the one-year extension was in the

last two years, but what he's been asking for sounds like it's been pretty consistent and it's just adjusting with the market as it goes. Yeah. And there's there are a couple of things there. I think that there are going to be a lot of listeners and viewers that say, Trey, you're under contract. Trey, you're under contract. That's it.

You sign the contract. You're on a contract. You're going to plan. And we, and I think it was one of the most revealing things because it's been speculated on, but one of the most revealing things that happened during that McAfee interview, and he got to it right away outside of the miscommunication and stuff like that or the lack of communication and the respect part of it, which we'll still get to. But there was a real clear moment where I was like, oh, this impacts a lot.

And we will get to that coming up next. Today's show is brought to by game time. Getting tickets shouldn't be stressful. It certainly shouldn't be as stressful as negotiating long-term contract extensions. And that's where game time comes in, making it easier than ever to grab last-minute seats at unbeatable prices, whether you want to watch the Reds, whether you're thinking about going to Indianapolis for the NBA playoffs or going to Cleveland for the NBA playoffs. any of the awesome concerts that are going to happen this spring and summer, Game Time is going to have exactly what you're looking for. And they have the GameTime Picks feature,

which filters out all of the nonsense, all of this back and forth that you have to do searching for tickets. Well, it filters all that out, and it shows you the best deals, the best value. And so you can get the most bang for your buck in the seats that you are looking for. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code locked on NFI, for $20 off your first purchase. Make sure you toggle that all-in pricing. So you know exactly what you're going to pay for your seats.

Again, that's L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-FL-L-N-FLock-on NFL, locked-on NFL for $20 off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. You had your income moment? Yeah, the going back to, he said three years ago. And so three years would be 2022. I want to say he's thinking 2023.

I assume it wouldn't be 22 because he was only a year into the deal. But in 2023, when they gave him that one-year contract extension, he clearly wanted a longer-term deal then. The market had changed. Last year, after getting that one-year extension, tried to revisit it after doing that in 23, revisiting it in 24. Obviously, that didn't happen. But what he said was that they discussed in a meeting. my agent that 2025 would be the year go out there and play and we'll get it done and this isn't

just going way back to last off season where they said that they got him to play and now they're like oh well t and jamar we have to reshuffle the deck no they told him this at the combine too that that was a big thing to me so like this idea that oh well trade's just he's trying to get a new deal but he's under contract yeah but they he's saying they told him that they were going to get something done probably why he showed back up to OTAs last year after that trade request. And after that trade request, what was like 48 hours. I mean, it was such a quick one. It wasn't that quick, but it was really quick.

And he rescinded it and he showed up and everything was fine. They probably said, hey, Tray, we're going to take care of you. And then he goes and leads the NFL in Sacks. And once they get taken care of and the market shoots up. And the Bengals now are probably like, oh, I don't know what to do. And here we go. And they take care of him at what. And in what context?

Because there are a couple of specific things that come up in terms of what Trey's after, right? Sure. He wants the long-term idea of where his family is going to be. This is something that's consistently come up for him. Does that mean he needs a three-year extension? Yep. It's kind of what it sounds like.

Because he's talking about the rest of his career in this interview. He's talking about four or five years. Yep. Where his family is going to be. Talking about his wife a lot in this conversation, right? Where he's going to be with his wife, with his family. and that being very important to him. And also coming up is this idea of guarantees.

And this is something that we maybe didn't think would be as necessary with Trey based on the fact that he had agreed to the Bengal structure twice, that his agent has that history of getting those deals done with the Bengals. It didn't involve those guarantees. but now Trey very explicitly talking about wanting guarantees in that contract. Also, very explicitly, talking about not wanting to play for incentives outside of his control. So long-term contract guarantees no incentives that have to do with reaching the Super Bowl or the AFC championship game.

T. Higgins has those incentives in his contract. And there's a lot of money in those incentives, and that's great. But Trey's not trying to play for incentives that he can't control. He wants to know what money he's making, have that security, and have those multiple years. And he wants to do it in Cincinnati, despite the issues we're going to talk about around respect that came up because of the Katie Blackmun quote. Yeah, look, I would be shocked if the Bengals didn't, weren't offering incentives. and incentives are fine, but Trey's not dumb with this. Like, I'm sure he looked at that deal for Max Crosby and was like, eh.

Because when you really look at it, you know, the details with it, it's one of those things where it's like, eh, I think he looked at the DeNeil Hunter deal, given what everything you just said and was like, yeah, I'm better than him. I want more than a year. I want long term. I want guarantees. They gave them to not only Jamar, but T. Like the precedent is broken.

And he probably doesn't even go to T. He probably just goes to Jamar. You gave him to Jamar. I led the NFL in Sacks. I'm on that level too. And that's, honestly, you can't argue it because I guarantee you other teams offered in that guaranteed money.

That's why letting him seek a trade was dumb in the moment, I thought. And it's, it makes it's so much harder because now that what he wants is pretty, I'm sure it's crystal clear. I'm sure his agent's been like, here are these offers we have. And so if you're the Bengals, it's like, all right, well, what do you do? And so I think there's a lot there. One, they don't blink in these situations, even though they did kind of with the seek a trade thing.

But I think that they were like, all right, well, yeah, if you give us a first round pick, we'll consider trading our 30-year-old defensive end. Not three first round picks, which Pat McAfee claimed. That was, I don't think, ever the- Did he say that? He said that based on reports, he thinks the Bengals were asking for three first-round picks, which is crazy.

There was never a report that said three first-round picks. So if you heard that, I do not believe that for a second. I think Pat McAfee mistaken there. Yeah, one. One first. That's fair. I don't think they got that offer. Because if they did, I think they might have taken it.

I think so, too. They've dealt with, like, there's a reverse side here. Like, Trey's brought this up for three years about how he wants these things. Well, the Bengals have dealt with it for three years about how he wants these things. And it's getting louder now. And by the way, I'm not saying Trey's wrong. I get it. If I led the NFL in Sacks, I'm like, you better pay, you better pay me right now.

So I get that. I also understand last year with two years left, not rushing to it. But here's the thing for me. if you were willing to pay Trey, like if you, deep down they were willing to pay Trey this year, like last year they thought that, well, why didn't you just juice that up by two years last year? It would have been easier to do it last year. The market hadn't moved. You didn't even get Jammar done anyway.

And it just like, like looking back, it's like, well, if you were willing to then, and you weren't going to say, eh, we're going to kick the can down the road for two years. Like I just, it's way more complicated now because the market changed, which it's up to them to see that. And it's pretty easy to see that it would be changing

when you look at who's up, and it might continue to change. But with some of these other guys that are potentially getting paid. That's where I look at the Bengals and it's like, well, if you were open to pay, a 30-year-old Trey Hendrickson, then doing it last year would have made a ton of sense. And then you wouldn't be in this situation.

And who knows what you'd be focused on, but it certainly wouldn't be Trey Hendrickson going on the Pat McAfee show. Yeah. I think hindsight always 20-20, right? Sure. It's always easy to look back and say they should have done T two years ago. They should have done Jammar last year. They should have done Trey last year or two years ago or whenever.

and on trade side of things, it's easy to say you should have never taken that one-year extension. But if you were willing to, like, I totally get why those things happened or didn't happen. So I just mean if the Bengals had a meeting and they were like, yeah, we're willing to pay him next off-season. Yeah. And that was like a real thing. Like if they're truly willing to, it's different to say it versus truly believe it. But if they truly believe that, well, then why? then why wait? Because if you do it last year, then you don't have to do as many years.

And you're not talking about a 34-year-old Trey Hendrickson or a, you know what I'm saying? Like there's incentive there to get it done last year if you're willing. And at the same time for Trey, he's looking for the last big payday, essentially. And so accepting that one-year extension in the first place, massive mistake, right? It prevents you from getting back to the market as a free agent. And so it's kind of this conundrum that both sides. have put themselves in a position where the Bengals said, okay, we'll take care of you next year.

Trey goes and balls out and is second in defensive player of the year voting, and many think he should have been the defensive player of the year, leads the league in sacks. Then you get contracts for Dineal Hunter, for Max Crosby, for Miles Garrett. You're expecting Micah Parsons, maybe T.J. Watt, to get new deals as well. And he uses real estate analogy a couple times, just talks about being on Zillow and looking at prices over the years.

He refers to Josh Hines Allen and Brian Burns and Rashon Gary. Rashon Gary got $24 million in 2020, Brian Burns and Allen got $28 million in 2024. And now this year you get the huge jump to $35 million for players that are 30 or around 30. And he brings that up in this interview as well. Like, hey, look, I'm not the only one this 30 that's asking for money here. another point that he brings up and is pointing to these other contracts that are comparables. And so it makes him look very reasonable, I'll say.

On the Bengals side of things, you talked about that trade request not making sense at the time. It made sense if they were willing to move him quickly and then reallocate those monies. That's like the only way. I don't think that's a good way. And we said that at the time. And we said that at the time. And it's still not optimal, right? But like that's the only way it could make sense.

And at this point, if you trade him, there's nobody. Like, what are you doing for that part of your defense? Like, where is the havoc on your defense? You can't. So if you can't trade them, where does that leave you? Right? The only way you could trade him is if someone gave you a first and then some. And then it still makes you worse this year, but you just want to avoid the headache.

Like, that would be someone bumps up their offer. I don't even think they got offered a high second, by the way. I don't think they were offered like pick 33. And then where does that leave you? Right? That's my question. And that's where we will go coming up next in addition to getting to the Katie Blackburn respect line and a little bit more on that quote. And something that needs to change from the Bengals front office, among other things.

We'll get to those points coming up next. The respect line. Let's get to that because Trace, I found the quote here. You can say respect. Respect is something I have for Zach Taylor. and I take that approach every day, being on time communicating with him, and yes, sir, I will do all the right things. There's a mutual respect. Just to say the word respect and actions are speaking a lot louder in a different direction, it's disappointing.

And I do think that that, Jake, is just tying in the Katie quote. Why, I think you and I are on the same page with the Katie quote. It's not that ridiculous on the surface. Like I that's what negotiating is like oh well Yeah he's not happy with it and and you know we would love for him to be happy with it and Maybe it'll work out and like that's that's just kind of the The emotionless approach that you kind of have to have in negotiating to a degree like I get it But if there's no communication

That's the issue and it goes back to the root of it like like people are going to call it the bengal way like you know it because of the lack of the last of communication. Like if you have open, if it's like, Trey, I promise we're going to get you done. What we're really focused on right now

is crafting the best roster possible. And we have you in mind. And what we're going to do is we're going to make sure we get you done. So we have you here for the offseason program. Like if that's communicated and very clear, I don't think that quote pisses try off and makes it bad. But because that quote is out there and there's, no communication or very poor communication,

Trey's words. Now we're here where he's like, all right, well, if we're going, if we're going to go to war, let's go. And I think that that's battened down the hatch. I think that that's where everything is headed. There's so much to that respect point from Trey Hendrickson too.

No doubt. How frustrating must be for Zach Taylor is one thing that comes to mind. Like he's got this great relationship with this player who wants. to play on his football team. And then there's this contract dispute. And Trey Hendrickson is sitting on the Pat McAfee show invoking how he respects his head coach. And his head coach respects him. But he doesn't feel like Katie Blackburn talking about we have all the respect in the world for him.

He's been a great player. We're happy to have him. He doesn't feel that respect when Katie's invoking that word in this. Zach has to be the middleman, you know? It sucks. Yeah. Because you've got to keep the player motivated. But it's not like he can be the one.

to get the deal done. And that's Mickey Mouse stuff, man. I'm sorry. But that is not professional football team, professional football organization kind of stuff to me. And so that is very frustrating to see and picking that apart a little bit. But I think that another piece of this is what needs to happen for the Blackburn family to understand how these things are going to read and print. The quote starts,

I think he should be happy at certain rates and maybe he doesn't think he'd be happy at. That sounds pretty bad, right? That sounds like Katie Blackburn is telling Trey Hendrickson how to be happy, right? If you read it in a certain way. Sure. But it could also be read as,

I think he should be happy at a number that he doesn't think he'll be happy at negotiating, right? Like, of course I think he should be happy at, say, $29 million. And of course he thinks he should be at $33 million. That's probably all Katie means. And because he's saying, it's on him to be happy at some point. And that's in the quote.

And she's kind of putting the onus on the player to accept an offer. It looks the way it looks. The optics are the optics. Even if the quote didn't have that intent. You know how Trey is saying the quote? The same way everyone else is seeing the quote. Like his dad is texting it to him, I think, or maybe his agent. I think you were saying his dad sees most of this stuff and that's where he gets it.

So seeing these quotes via his dad on social media, he's like, man, she really said that. And he's seeing it the same way that all the fans saw it. And at some point, I think you've got to be aware and more careful about the way you're saying things are going to be portrayed. in writing because she also said, I'd be lying if I said I knew what was going to happen. And there's a lot of uncertainty about it. And she's being asked repeatedly. And then this comes up because she's answering a question about,

I think it was reported that the question was, can you get to a point where both sides are happy? Yeah. And then she's talking about happiness as a result of that question. Sure. And so there's levels to this, right? But the root of it is the communication. Like, it solves it all.

Like, you may suck at interviews and say something that is taken out of context for a bunch of people. But if the communication with the player is there, then none of it matters. Then it blows away. There's no McAfee interview. There's no issues. There's going to be some frustration during negotiations. And that's probably what the Bengals will say today, right? I don't think that, by the way, open season, if anyone from the Bengals front office wants to come on and respond to Trey, absolutely what ready to go.

Jake and I would love to have you. But let's be honest here. We know how it's going to be. They will, they're not going to respond. They're not going to freak out. They're going to be very even keeled about it. Fine. But just communicate with the camp.

Like, let's go down the house. house analogy road. And if you're in negotiations on a house, you don't necessarily have to be completely all right. Well, we got to think of how this is portrayed by the seller or the buyer or whoever that you're going back and forth with. Well, but you don't want to make an insulting offer. You're thinking about that when you're negotiating any kind of purchase. Well, sure, but I'm not even talking about the offer. I just mean like communication of, hey, yeah, we're definitely interested. We definitely want to make an offer. coming just so you know like yeah like just keep the line they have to have a plan so just tell tray

tell tray like it doesn't you're not playing poker here to the degree that i think they're treating it as like if you want tray he wants to be in Cincinnati well it doesn't need to be oh well i can't show my hand because that may cost us no just say hey man we want to pay you and and make sure that that's always clear that that's a priority. Look, it's because otherwise you're asking Zach to do that, and players know that Zach isn't the one that's getting the deal done. And so that only holds so much weight. And they need to do it. That's the other part of it, is if you're going to communicate and have players believe you and not scoff at you when you talk about respect and quotes at the owner's meetings, Trace talking about action speaking louder than words. And so

While communication is important, there are a lot of fans in my replies already on social media. What does trade need to be explained that he's going to come after the wide receivers? He should know that. Sure. But a little bit of communication is easy. It's free and can set expectations. We talk a lot about expectation setting. It's been a while.

But in my life, personally, speaking about personal anecdotes, James, expectation setting goes such a long way. when you're surprised when you're blindsided by something versus when you expect something to happen even if that thing isn't ideal when you expect that it's happening that has been communicated to you that lands so much differently and everyone can probably relate to that to some degree in their life right no different for for trey hendrickson in this situation and so if you don't plan to get the deal done until june explain to tray why and that you plan to by the way, that's unreasonable.

Like, you know, there's no reason to wait that long. But just saying, like, if that's whatever the plan is, just communicate it a little bit more. And maybe that this doesn't feel as, now, what the Bengals will say is, yeah, James, you know what's going to help is if we pay him what he wants? And that's why it's just a player who's unhappy. Like, I get it.

Like, you could take all the emotion out of it and look at it that way, and it's very black and white. There's some truth to it, too. No doubt. But there's also some gray. welcome to the world there's gray crazy like there's gray and this that's it's why it comes back to why is it always so hard like why is it always this grinded outfit like it doesn't have to be and it doesn't just got to look around look around the league does not have to be these deals

come out of nowhere come out of nowhere where you're not expecting expecting it. There isn't a guy going on Pat McAfee saying this, this, this, this, and this. And so we'll see. We'll see when it comes to a head. But this is, I think it's a battle now. And this is going to be a stare down. And if they really told Trey, hey, we're going to take care of you, we'll now take care of him. Yeah. Like that's, that's where I will come back to. And the market's changed. It's, you know, if you tell, we're going to just use the house analogy. If you tell your wife, yeah, we're going to move next year. I promise, well, she's going to remember that. And that's it, you know? Like that, for real.

So the market may change. Well, maybe you should have done it when she wanted to move in the first place. And instead, she's like, hey, not only are we moving, but I was just number one at my respective job at getting sacks. And so now, boom, you're going to pay me more because I got to raise. so that house price is going up. I mixed in eight different analogies there. The point is, Trey wants to get,

it doesn't matter. Trey wants to get paid. Pay Trey. I mean, it's the same thing we talked about three months ago. And beyond that, I don't know what else you do at this point. You try to hold them hostage

to play on the one-year deal. What happens then? How ugly does that get? Or you pay him? Or there's some world, I guess, where like there's a, trade that maybe happens at this point, but then what are you doing on your defense? I just don't see the other path and the other allocation of resources that makes sense at this

point. So given that he has very clear requests, you have a very clear need at the position and the alternatives are shooting yourself in the foot. I don't really know what else you do. I don't see what other direction this goes. It makes it hard. We'll be back tomorrow here on the Lockdown Bengals podcast while we marinate on the Trey Hendrickson interview on the Pat McAfee show.

There's even more from the Katie Blackburn interview that we can talk about as well that we didn't get to today because we were so focused on the parts having to do with Trey Hendrickson. And one thing that I found so interesting about it, Paul D. Jr. did his podcast talking about the interview with Katie Blackburn and Trey Hendrickson didn't even come up. And I think that might speak to the difference of how it felt to be there and how it felt to see that in writing. It's just something that occurred to me as I was watching that show. Anyway. Daily communication.

Oh, hey, we do that on Lockdown Bengals. That's right. Crazy. And we'll do that here tomorrow for you as well. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Locktown Bengals podcast, Hootay. And have a good one. You think the Bengals should hire us to communicate with Trey every day?