Star Bengals edge rusher Trey Hendrickson is reportedly on the trade block with the Bengals'permission, but one former Cincinnati talent thinks it could just be a way to fully gauge Hendrickson's contract value.
The Bengals' top defensive player is set to earn $16 million in the final year of his contract this fall. That would be a massive underpay compared to his other pass-rushing peers at the top of a league he led in sacks last season (17.5).
Former Bengals offensive tackle and current Amazon NFL analyst Andrew Whitworth thinks people need to calm down a little bit.
"Why is everyone so dramatic?" Whitworth posted on X. " A player demands to be paid X. I don’t feel good about paying X. I say, 'Well I hold your rights. So if X will only make you happy. Go out there explore your real options. Come back to be with the number other teams are willing to pay you, while keeping in mind what you mean to me. So my compensation needs to be included. Now, we can have a full transparent conversation about your worth to them, to me, and maybe what it means to just stay.' I mean… Seems transparent and a logical answer to me."
This situation just played out in Los Angeles with the Rams letting Matthew Stafford gauge his value on the quarterback market before he decided to run it back with the Rams.
Quarterbacks aren't the same as edge rushers though, and letting Hendrickson even test the market on his own is a very rare occurrence from a Bengals team that usually ignores trade requests.
Time will tell if they really want to trade him or are just having him see his open market value for better negotiations.
