The Cincinnati Bengals may be waiting on the Detroit Lions to extend their star pass rusher before signing their own.
With reports coming out Thursday that All-Pro edge rusher Trey Hendrickson may be willing to extend his holdout into the regular season, the Cincinnati Bengals are encouraged now more than ever to expedite his contract situation.
Hendrickson is pleading for a new deal that pays him a comparable amount to the other elite defensive ends around the NFL. After leading the league in sacks last season, he has done plenty to justify that promotion.
The Bengals, however, have not seemed to make much progress in altering their initial offer. Hendrickson has clearly voiced his displeasure by not attending OTAs and publicly calling out the front office for the mismanagement of his negotiations. Still, we are left with no substantial progress.
That could be because Cincinnati is taking as long as possible for the rest of the market to settle itself. Other pass rusher names to keep an eye on are Aidan Hutchinson of the Detroit Lions and Micah Parsons of the Dallas Cowboys.
One Bengals site suggests Cincinnati is waiting to see the figure Hutchinson signs for before they re-offer Hendrickson. This is because Detroit is in a very similar situation as Cincinnati financially.
The Lions just paid large contracts to star offensive players in quarterback Jared Goff, receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and lineman Penei Sewell. Similarly, the Bengals have re-signed QB Joe Burrow and receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Now both teams' next player on the agenda is their star edge rusher, but they obviously have to be mindful of the space they have left in the cap.
Hutchinson has burst onto the scene since entering the NFL as a highly-touted No. 2 overall pick in 2022. Last season in particular, he was on a tear with eight sacks in just five games. Unfortunately a broken leg brought an end to his season.
However, his 22 sacks in the first two seasons of his career were enough for the Lions to pick up his 2025 option year and buy themselves more time to formulate a high-price extension.
Now Hutchinson and Hendrickson are both entering their "contract years" ... except Hendrickson may not get to that point, as he has firmly stated he will not play under his current contract.
Detroit could be inclined to sign Hutchinson for a deal worth in the mid-$30 million range. Cincinnati would then debate signing Hendrickson for less because he is nearly six years older than Hutchinson, and therefore more of an injury risk.
If Detroit landed on something in the high-$20mil to low-$30mil range for Hutchinson, it could show Hendrickson that Cincinnati's initial offer of $28 million a year is a good deal that matches the upper echelon of the position.
Although Myles Garrett and Maxx Crosby's astronomical salaries would greatly exceed this number, you could argue that Cleveland and Las Vegas were incentivized to pay that much because they are the few "star power" figures in their organizations and need to be kept around for things like fan excitement and marketing.
Cincinnati and Detroit don't have that problem.
This argument may be a bit of a stretch, but Garrett and Crosby's play on the field does still defend their right to command such a salary.
Hendrickson's does, too.
So it could makes sense on why Cincinnati would wait to see how Hutchinson impacts the market ... but the only exception is that Detroit is not in a rush to get a deal done.
Cincinnati is. And the clock is ticking.
