Cincinnati Bengals Paid Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins: Is Trey Hendrickson Next?

The Bengals' negotiations with Trey Hendrickson could take time, even if they hope to sign the star pass rusher to a new contract.

Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson (91) celebrates a stop in the fourth quarter of the NFL Week 18 game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. The Bengals won 19-17 to finish the regular season at 9-8. / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CINCINNATI — The Bengals signed Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to four-year contract extensions earlier this week.

Is Trey Hendrickson next?

Despite multiple reports saying the Bengals have turned their focus to Hendrickson, league sources say there hasn't been much movement from the organization or Hendrickson's camp this week.

That doesn't mean that things won't ramp up—and fast.

The Bengals cleared over $6 million in cap space when the signed Higgins to a four-year extension. Couple that with Danielle Hunter's one-year, $35.6 million extension with the Texans and it's reasonable to think that both sides could come to an agreement in the near future.

The words "could" vs "will" are two very different things.

The Bengals want Hendrickson on their football team in 2025. Hendrickson wants to stay in Cincinnati.

That doesn't mean things are going to come together quickly. A deal could take some time to get done.

After the Bengals gave Hendrickson permission to seek a trade earlier this month, it didn't seem realistic to think that a team would offer Cincinnati a first round pick in exchange for the NFL sack leader.

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Now we know the trade offers weren't close to what the Bengals were looking for, which lines up with expectations.

Would the Bengals get a first if he was under contract for multiple seasons? Maybe. But no team is willing to pay him top of the market defensive end money and give up a first round pick in the process—at least not yet.

It's another reason why this could take time. The 2025 NFL Draft is still over a month away.

Hendrickson is under contract and there are teams that would love to trade for him. Will anyone be willing to up their offer between now and the draft?

Will the Bengals get back to the negotiating table and try to get something done in the coming days?

Maybe they wait this out, see if they get a better offer over the next few weeks and then approach Hendrickson's camp about a long-term extension.

It's hard to envision a scenario where the Bengals have a championship level defense in 2025 without their star pass rusher.

Hendrickson is one of the top pass rushers in the NFL. He has 35 sacks over the past two seasons and keeping him on the team will make life so much easier for Myles Murphy, Joseph Ossai, Cedric Johnson and any of the young defensive linemen they take in the 2025 NFL Draft.

The Bengals may push to get a deal done with Hendrickson in the coming days, but don't be shocked if this deal moves slower than the national reporting around it would suggest.

"Yeah, we can make it happen. We can make it happen," Bengals star quarterback Joe Burrow said last month. "It just has to be right for everybody involved. I know the players wanna make it work, we all wanna be together. I don't see it not working out, but we'll see."

So far, the Bengals have signed Chase, Higgins and Gesicki. Is Hendrickson next?

Time will tell.

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