Trey Hendrickson and the Cincinnati Bengals remain at complete odds nearly a month after the team stopped contract extension talks and the player put them on blast. Hendrickson has remained steadfast in his conquest for a new deal even if his current team is not the one to pay up.
His case is not undeserving either. Hendrickson has provided a spark for an otherwise lackluster Bengals defense of late, tallying a total of 35 sacks over the last two seasons. But if the sides are not willing to make amends, the Bengals could shop Hendrickson sometime before the start of the season.
When considering potential landing spots for him, Alex Buck of NFL Analysis proposed the San Francisco 49ers as an ideal landing spot. Hendrickson would join Nick Bosa to form one of the most formidable pass rush pairings in the NFL.
"John Lynch’s team is estimated to have just shy of $50 million available, with $90 million in dead money wrapped into contracts with the likes of Deebo Samuel, Arik Armstead, and Charvarius Ward all coming off the books in the near future.
"While they’ve paid Brock Purdy a handsome fee, they can afford to take on Hendrickson’s request for a much-improved salary."
Much of this fit focuses on the financials here. The Niners have eased the burden on their cap with a few of their departures this offseason though the timing may not work here.
The financial transition makes for ill timing, but more importantly there is one player standing in the way of this deal being any sort of necessity for the Niners. San Francisco players and coaching staff remain very high on rookie Mykel Williams who projects the other starting spot on the Niners' defensive edge.
“What we saw on college tape and all the information that we gathered in pre-draft process concerning him as a person, all the boxes have checked off so far,” defensive line coach Kyle Kocurek said last week.
Bringing in Hendrickson puts him behind in the pecking order which would not make much sense for a player who by all accounts is ready to be challenged at this level.
Now there's certainly the argument for having the abundance of riches and making other teams deal with waves of terror in the pass rush. But the Niners have their fearsome tandem and Williams deserves his shot in the spotlight.
