Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Trey Hendrickson Is Headed for a MASSIVE Payday: Here's What it Means for the Bengals

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Bengals are probably letting the number one free agent out the door. And we've talked about what the Bengals should do. But if you thought he's going to take a one-year deal, you're probably mistaken. Let's get into it. 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 Lockdown Bengals podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day in the number one sports podcast

Starting point is 00:00:35 network in the land. He's James Rapine. I'm Jake Liscoe. We've got you covered here on lockdown Bengals every day going back to 2016 with all the latest Bengals news and analysis. And today we're going to dive into in our mini episode of the day, Trey Hendrickson's contract projections for next season for this free agency as the athletic put out their list of top free agents and a bunch of contract projections. And some of you might have seen PFF's contract projection, which was something like one year, $21 million for Trey a prove-it deal that I think was met with skepticism by James and myself is one of the reasons we haven't talked about it a whole lot, if at all, on this podcast and more in line with what

Starting point is 00:01:15 we're thinking are the athletics projections for next year. And so I don't think there's a world where the number one free agent at a premium position, one of the top sackers in the NFL in the last four or five years is taking a one-year prove-a-deal this offseason, especially everything Trey's gone through to get to this point, James. It's just really hard to imagine that he finally gets their free agency and doesn't have a market and settles for a one-year deal. Instead, it's a much higher projection from the athletic. And like I said, more in line with what we thought trade would command on the open market. Yeah, far more in line. He's going to get paid. He has value. NFL teams aren't hurt

Starting point is 00:02:00 because he had poor negotiations with the Bengals. They see, oh, a guy has 39 sacks. in his last 41 games, including four sacks and seven games this past year, underwent core muscle surgery, and that's it. Like, it's pretty cut and dry. And, yeah, there are going to be teams that are really want Trey Hendrickson and are going to be willing to pay Trey Hendrickson. Wouldn't shock me if three for 99 is low. Wouldn't shock me one bit if there's multiple bids and it gets bid up.

Starting point is 00:02:27 And Trey Hendrickson gets two of three years on a contract guaranteed. and, you know, he signs a $110 million deal over three years with 60-something million to guarantee. You know, it really would not surprise me a ton. Maybe it's 70 million guaranteed. And it's because, one, it's a weaker free agent crowd. Two, pass rush is king, Duke Tobin quote, trademark. And Trey, regardless of how the negotiations have gone and his perceived value with the Bengals

Starting point is 00:02:57 and for the Bengals and what it should be moving forward and how they feel about him, these other teams are going to see that sack production and say that dog is going to hunt all day long in our scheme, in our defensive line, in our situation, and that's it. And there's going to be plenty of suitors. So this doesn't surprise me. I think this contract projection is far closer. I also think it's a reminder what the Bengals have and why other teams want it. and it's also a reminder as much as I've pushed the free agent tag or the franchise tag don't let him get to free agency.

Starting point is 00:03:36 That's all Trey and his agent can think about right now. I guarantee it. They want to get to free agency because boy, oh boy, they're thinking three figures, 300 plus million dollar contract coming Trey's way if they can get to free agency. And so you've got to navigate that franchise tag element of it. But I just, I go back to this is a reminder of how the NFL. in general views Trey in the value that he has. Yeah, I think the franchise tag reminder is really salient for me.

Starting point is 00:04:04 Like talking about a guy that doesn't get to free agency. And I know that we've said this before. So apologies for the everydayers, this is a repeat for you. But guys like Trey Hendrickson, Alpha Pass rushers just don't get to free agency. Maybe they do at the end of their, like Khalil Mack this year. He was an Alpha Pass Rusher in his heyday. Joey Bosa was an Alpha Pass Rusher in his heyday. Bosa's had injuries and his older.

Starting point is 00:04:29 Kaleel Mack obviously has been around forever. I think he's still good, but they would have to really overweight for Trey Hendrickson's injury issue in 2025 for that price to come down because when he was on the field, he was still really good. Like all of the underlying numbers, I know he only had four sacks. I know he couldn't stay on the field and maybe that's used against him a little bit

Starting point is 00:04:52 in negotiations. But when a guy like this gets to the open market, if he does in fact get to the open market and like you said, there's a bidding war happening, that price could very well get driven up because of how rarely guys that get after the passer like this get to the open market, especially in this era of the NFL where you're seeing Michael Parsons getting traded for everything he got traded for. We're talking about Kenny Clark about him being a potential cap cut from Dallas being involved in that trade.

Starting point is 00:05:21 So that part of it and how rarely they get to free agency, again, serves as a reminder that the Bengals shouldn't let this guy just go for nothing. They should really be exploring at the NFL Com by next week what kind of tag and trade scenario they can put together quickly. They should be and Andre Perota wrote a really long substack post about this. So go check that out about the timing of what the tag and trade would have to look like. They should open those lines of communication to Tray's Asian and to Tray Hendricks and say, hey, this is our plan. We want to help you get what you want. But because we can control this thing a little bit, this is our. intention. They can even communicate ahead of time, like Andre wrote, James. We'll rescind

Starting point is 00:06:03 the tag before free agency. We don't want to be dealing with that cap hit either. We'll let you go negotiate. But let's see if we can get this trade done now. Is that giving up too much leverage? I don't know, but the Bengals should really be taking whatever reasonable offer they get. And that's what the reminder is for me. I have an idea of how they can navigate it. It certainly aligns with Andre. And I haven't been able to, I haven't had time to read his full post yet, but I think it will align. And it's good that you have so we can Bounce my idea off what Andre, who's just awesome at what he does when it comes to Trey, how they navigate this and how they get an asset for Trey Hendrickson. We will do that coming up next.

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Starting point is 00:07:35 Obviously, it's draft season. The Bengals trying to maybe get a pick, a draft pick in exchange for Trey Hendrickson. And, well, it's also time for the five-hour energy flavor draft. Which flavors are the best with five-hour energy? Well, five-hour energy shots give you a boost with zero sugar. I think that's really important to put out zero sugar, and you get that boost that you're looking for.

Starting point is 00:07:56 I know I'm going to need it. Jake, next week at the combine, that five-hour energy boost. And I always, my go-to is cherry, but they have something for everyone with five-hour energy from confetti craze, fruity rainbow, cherry, like I mentioned, grape, berry, strawberry, banana, Hawaiian breeze, sour apple. And who doesn't like sour? I know I do. I love sour stuff.

Starting point is 00:08:18 So you got to check out five-hour energy right now. In the flavor draft, well, it's coming. All you have to do to get a hold of your five-hour energy shots is. go to five hour energy.com or get them on Amazon. All right, Jake, here's what I would do with Trey. I would tell the entire, I would, I would tell him today, hey, we are tag you. We're going to tag you. We're not officially doing it.

Starting point is 00:08:42 We're going to tag you. We're going to talk with teams. And this is going to be a collaborative effort to give you, to get you to a spot where you're going to get paid and you're going to be made whole because we understand it. So you tell him that he's going to be pissed off. He's going to be mad. No doubt about it. you get ahead of it, you let him digest that part of it.

Starting point is 00:09:01 Then when you're at the combine next week, you talk with teams. You figure out which teams are willing to give you a third or a fourth or something in that range that you prefer that you want. And maybe you get unique offers. I don't know. But you weigh those offers, you look at it. And if they're all similar, if it's pick 80 from the Colts or pick 82 from this team or pick 904 from that team, and it could be whatever, pick 106 to 110. as long as it's not a division rival or something silly like that, say, hey, Trey, go talk to those

Starting point is 00:09:33 teams. You have permission to talk to all these teams about your contract. We have agreed to compensation with all of these teams, whatever it is. It might be one team. It might be five teams. And I bet it would be more than one. I bet you could do that where you get adequate compensation for more than one team. And you give him that ability to kind of navigate it and figure out what's best and get the most money still that he can get. And so it works in both ways. Now, this is going to take a hell of a lot of communication, which the Bengals and Trey's side have been really, really poor at. So I will offer my services. My hourly rates pretty high, but Bengals, maybe we can figure out it. It is not this complex. And there is a way to do it where

Starting point is 00:10:19 Trey gets his and gets it a ton and honestly gets it ahead of free agency. And on the other side of it, you're the Bengals. You are still able to get an asset for him this year that you can use. There is a way to do it. I get it. Treyside wants to get to free agency. I understand. You can still make this work, though, and get something for him.

Starting point is 00:10:42 Yeah, the only thing I would add is that Harold Lewis, Trey's agent, will also be involved in exploring the trades like he was the last time. The Bengals gave him permission to seek a trade. The agent is involved at that point in time. But the Bengals obviously have the opportunity to, to have these conversations at the combine. That's one of the things that happens at the combine. Teams talk to agents, agents talk to agents, agents talk to teams.

Starting point is 00:11:02 That's one of the big events that happens there. Teams can review those measurements in any time. The other big thing that happens there, of course, is the interviews and the medicals and the players, or the teams getting their hands on the players for the first time in person and getting the in-person looks at everything. So that obviously is important too. But one of the major, major things that happens at the NFL Combine every year is all of these conversations, which is why you start to hear about what teams are going to be prioritizing

Starting point is 00:11:26 over the next couple of weeks. Because you have that little bit of a gap between the combine, the beginning of the combine and free agency. And that's when teams start to understand the landscape of what's happening around them. Some of this stuff gets to the media, all that stuff. But yeah, I think that plan makes a lot of sense. The communication is a challenge for the Bengals, as always. Like, I'm with you.

Starting point is 00:11:45 Get ahead of it, right? Just like, he's on his way. You might as well just deal with this one thing. and get in front of this and do everything you can to make this as painless as possible. And maybe they just see that as just, you know, we're not going to talk to him. We're just going to let him go. And that's that. And we've talked a lot about why they have an opportunity here to get an asset that they can

Starting point is 00:12:07 use and also control where he goes because the idea of him going and signing with like the Baltimore Ravens or something is potentially nightmare fuel, right? Like thinking about that's not a good matchup for Orlando Brown. I think Orlando's a fine left. That's not a good matchup for Orlando Brown. And I don't like the idea of Trey Hendrickson rushing against Orlando Brown with Joe Burrow a quarterback. And it could be another reign of where you just look at it. You're like, we're good.

Starting point is 00:12:32 We're good. We'll send you here instead. And everyone's talking about Max Crosby, right? Everybody. Maybe the Raiders do decide to trade him. And it isn't Cincinnati. And maybe they're interested in Trey Hendrickson. It worked once upon a time with the quarterback on a rookie deal.

Starting point is 00:12:47 Maybe they go that route and they say, we can get two ones for Max. and then just give up a three for Trey and then plenty of ways to go about it. And I just don't try to tell me how valuable your draft picks are if you're not willing to do an extra step or two and do some tough hard work to get an extra pick. Like that's really it. Like, yeah, it's going to suck and it's going to be uncomfortable and he's going to be pissed off and there's going to probably be cussing and throwing and just a lot of frustration back and forth. some of it you'll hear some of it you won't but it is your job to try to maximize every asset you can they've gotten to this point with tray make it an uncomfortable two weeks and get it done because he does not want to get stuck on the tag he wants a long-term deal and if there are

Starting point is 00:13:36 multiple suitors lining up with long-term deals for him even if it's a trade he's going to be down with that and be willing to make that work some other notable contract projections over with the athletic for the Bengals that we're not going to get into a ton in this episode, but we will be touching on in the future on lockdown Bengals. That includes Dalton Reisner projected for two years, $14 million. Joseph Osai also with a pretty hefty projection, three years, $11 million per year, 33 million total.

Starting point is 00:14:08 So that one pretty interesting. Those could be some players of Bengals may or may not be interested in bringing back. I think certainly interested in Reisner. I think the jury is still out on the. the Bengals' interests in a return or reunion with Joseph Osai once again. But it will depend on how those markets develop and a really good group of projections done by the athletic overall. So you can check those out at your leisure, of course, and we'll talk about some of the

Starting point is 00:14:36 noteworthy ones for Bengals potential targets and Bengals-free agents in a future show on Lockdown Bengals. Until then, thanks for listening to this mini episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, Pouda and have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Trey Hendrickson Is Headed for a MASSIVE Payday: Here's What it Means for the Bengals

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