John Sheeran discusses why the Cincinnati Bengals contract discussions with Trey Hendrickson might sound different after Maxx Crosby's new deal.
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00:00The latest major NFL contract extension has greatly impacted what the Bengals are going
00:04through right now, and in this video, I'll explain how one of their most common problems
00:08has cost them once again.
00:13Hi again Bengals fans, John Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati here, and for as much
00:17criticism as I've had about how the Bengals have managed both Tee Higgins and Jamar Chase,
00:22I don't have that same level of criticism for how they've managed Trey Hendrickson.
00:25Truthfully, I think everything that they've done since signing him originally to a four-year deal
00:29back in 2021 has been pretty spot on. They extended him for a year in 2023. They didn't
00:34give in to his trade demands after he wanted to be extended again after just one year. That was
00:39more of his beef with his old agent anyways, so I think everything that the Bengals have done with
00:43him up to this point has been pretty spot on. The problem, however, that the Bengals commonly run
00:47into, no matter how well that they've managed business with a certain player, is that the
00:51longer that they wait to pay them, the worse it ends up being for them. And in the beginning of
00:56March, even before free agency even begins, this wasn't seen as a really big problem for Trey
01:00Hendrickson, considering that he does have one year left on this contract. The Bengals have the
01:04entire offseason to theoretically get something done with him. And these talks are already well
01:08underway. Trace Camp reportedly met with the Bengals back in February after Trey made it very
01:13clear that if he doesn't get paid by the Bengals that he would like to be traded away from the
01:17team. As far as negotiating a major contract with one of their own players, the Bengals don't
01:21normally do this stuff until the summer. So doing so in February and March, they're already way
01:25ahead of their normal schedule. But again, if you wait just a little bit longer compared to when
01:30other teams actually start making these decisions and putting pen to paper, it's going to cost you.
01:35And this is why I think the Las Vegas Raiders extending Max Crosby to a three year, $106.5
01:41million extension, it's not the greatest news for the Bengals. Before this deal even became public,
01:46it was reported by the 33rd team's Ari Mirov that Trey was asking for $32 to $33 million from the
01:52Bengals and that both sides weren't necessarily there yet. But after another pass rusher who was
01:56very safely in the same tier as Trey Hendrickson signs on for a new deal worth $36.5 million a
02:02year, you have to wonder if Trey's asking price has changed a little bit. And there's reason to
02:06believe that it won't, right? Like Crosby was not the only edge rusher aside from Hendrickson
02:10looking to get paid this offseason. You're talking about TJ Watt, Myles Garrett, Micah Parsons,
02:15three guys who I think have a good argument of getting more than Hendrickson regardless.
02:18These players and agents have a much better idea of how much they're going to get paid and what
02:23their market is like way more than us on the outside do. So it's very possible that $32 to
02:27$33 million a year was already a projected price for just being right below whatever the new market
02:33level for pass rushers was going to be. But at the end of the day, a lot of that is still
02:36speculation. We don't know very much what's going on. The fact that it's a question at all,
02:40if whether or not the Bengals negotiations with Hendrickson just took a left turn because of Max
02:45Crosby's deal, that's enough of a question to make us talk about it, to discuss whether or not it
02:49matters and if it's going to negatively impact these negotiations. Because before Crosby's deal
02:53was announced, I think there was a lot of Bengals fans who would have not liked the idea of paying
02:58Trey Hendrickson a new contract worth $32 to $33 million a year. But now it doesn't look so bad in
03:03comparison, right? And if the Bengals had signed him to a deal with that number last week, it would
03:08have already looked like a bargain after Crosby got his deal. And this is the reality of every
03:13single big time contract in the history of the NFL. The only one who can't say the same is Deshaun
03:19Watson because the structure of an 100% guaranteed contract for a five-year deal that's worth $230
03:24million, that's probably never going to be replicated. But in terms of average annual
03:28value and how those numbers skyrocket every single year because of the natural yearly inflation of
03:34the cap, that's always going to be a constant. And it's something that continues to bite the
03:38Bengals in the butt because they can't get ahead of these deals because they don't offer the cash
03:43flow and guarantees that other teams like the Philadelphia Eagles offer. And all of this isn't
03:47to say that the Bengals are no longer focused on extending Trey Hendrickson because the price got
03:51too big or Hendrickson is moving on to someplace else. This is just to say that the landscape may
03:56have changed now because they just took a little bit too longer compared to their competitors per
04:01usual. And if things do end up going south in this partnership weeks down the road,
04:05we can look back to this exact moment as to where it all began.