Trey Hendrickson's extension means the Bengals are evolving even more
The contract that Trey Hendrickson signed two years ago fit the mold of how the Cincinnati Bengals have usually done business, outside of Hendrickson being an external free agent, of course. A four-year deal with roster bonuses instead of guaranteed base salaries and a decent-sized signing bonus created a structure that gave Hendrickson plenty of up […]
The contract that Trey Hendrickson signed two years ago fit the mold of how the Cincinnati Bengals have usually done business, outside of Hendrickson being an external free agent, of course. A four-year deal with roster bonuses instead of guaranteed base salaries and a decent-sized signing bonus created a structure that gave Hendrickson plenty of up front cash, and minimal long-term security.
Hendrickson was halfway done with that contract, which he's severely outperformed by the way, and his future beyond this season appeared to be in doubt after the team drafted Myles Murphy with their first-round pick this Spring.
Until the Bengals did something, yet again, that they've never done before.
Hendrickson signed a one-year extension with Cincinnati Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after proving his intensity hasn't wavered in a minor scuffle with new left tackle Orlando Brown during the first practice of training camp. Hendrickson's motor isn't going anywhere, and neither is he altogether for a few more years. The 28-year old two-time Pro Bowl pass rusher will be 31 by the time he hits free agency next.
A one-year extension on top of the two years remaining on his contract likely means the Bengals gifted Hendrickson with a hefty signing bonus and lowered his base salary for this season. They did this not only to reward Hendrickson for racking up 25.5 sacks, the eighth-most sacks since the start of the 2021 season (including postseason), but to benefit themselves as well.
Hendrickson's extension will pay him more cash up front, and almost certainly lower his salary cap hit for the 2023 season. His previous cap number of $15,488,235 was the highest on the team for this year. Lowering it even by a few million has potentially significant implications.
It's not like the Bengals have other contracts to worry about, right?
Creating current cap space while sacrificing future flexibility is how the Bengals can more easily fit in extensions for Joe Burrow, Tee Higgins, and even Logan Wilson. All three deals will involve new cash payouts that will impact the books for this year.
We're so far past the Bengals of old, but it's impossible not to bring up how different this approach is for them. The Bengals always operated with the idea of keeping the future as open as possible; not getting tied down by enlarged cap numbers locked down by guarantees. Whatever current cap space they had to work with, that was it.
The word restructure has never been in their lexicon. They've practically done it twice in the past two weeks with Joe Mixon's pay cut-restructure hybrid coming first. Lowering Hendrickson’s base salary while also handing him a hefty signing bonus and pushing larger cap hits into future years is how the NFL world defines a restructure.
It's a mundane task for virtually every other franchise. It's the equivalent to pulling teeth in Cincinnati, at least it used to be.
Burrow and Higgins alone are going to cost the Bengals a fortune, as will Ja'Marr Chase in a year's time. Tweaking already large contracts to make way for the inevitable signifies that darwinism has finally hit the front office, and the evolution is already underway.
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Featured image via © Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
