Bengals allowing Trey Hendrickson to seek a trade makes a lot more sense now following latest report
The Cincinnati Bengals allowing Trey Hendrickson to seek a trade of his own was quite surprising. The club has never done that before with any of its own players before. But if the Cincinnati was told a first-round pick would be the compensation for trading an All-Pro player like Hendrickson, it makes sense why the […]
The Cincinnati Bengals allowing Trey Hendrickson to seek a trade of his own was quite surprising. The club has never done that before with any of its own players before.
But if the Cincinnati was told a first-round pick would be the compensation for trading an All-Pro player like Hendrickson, it makes sense why the request was granted.
As it turns out, that was what was communicated to the Bengals by Hendrickson's representation.
According to a report from Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, Hendrickson's camp told the Bengals they could get the team a first-round pick in a trade.
Cincinnati's notorious stinginess when it comes to trades stems from the club's desire to always want more coming in than out. In other words, the Bengals want to make sure they win deals rather than get fair value in return.
Netting a first-round pick for Hendrickson would be as big of a win as they could imagine. If they had reason to believe it was possible, then they'd give Hendrickson's camp a chance to go out and find it.
The problem here is if Hendrickson's camp is wrong, which according to Breer is the case thus far, the Bengals will probably not actually trade Hendrickson for anything less than what they were promised.
Yes, this was likely the only way the Bengals would've entertained a trade, but they aren't going to trade a player just for the sake of trading him. They certainly aren't going to cave if the other side doesn't deliver.
This looks like a desperate move from Hendrickson's representation, and there's a history there. Hendrickson accepted a one-year extension back in 2023 that now prevents him from entering free agency. He requested a trade last offseason out of frustration for wanting to get paid more, even though the extension was signed just nine months prior.
Perhaps the Bengals will accept a second-round pick like Breer mentions, but it might take a minute before that happens as they await the first-rounder like they were told would hit their inbox.
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