Bengals roster breakdown is back! During the 99 days leading up to Cincinnati's regular season opener against the Cleveland Browns, the player with the matching jersey number as days remaining will become the day's highlighted player.
91 days (13 weeks) remain until the Bengals' first game of the 2025 season, which means it's time to address the elephant in the room who wears the No. 91 jersey.
Trey Hendrickson
- Age: 30
- Year: 9th
- Position: Defensive end
- College: FAU
- Previous Teams: New Orleans Saints (2017-20)
- Jersey Number: 91
Hendrickson is set to enter his ninth season in the NFL and fifth with the Bengals after being drafted 103rd overall in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft. He's played in 110 career games (81 starts) thus far with 65 of them in a Bengals uniform on top of 12 playoff games. He enters his 30s with 220 tackles, 71 tackles for loss, and 77 sacks. He's registered 155 tackles, 53 tackles for loss, and 57 sacks in Cincinnati.
New Orleans used Hendrickson as a full-time starter during the final year of his rookie contract, and the Bengals signed him to a four-year, $60 million deal the following year. He immediately proved worthy of that contract with 14 sacks in 2021, the second-highest single-season total in franchise history at the time. It's now the fourth-highest since Hendrickson's 2023 and 2024 seasons eclipsed that number with 17.5 sacks in each year. He's made four Pro Bowls in Cincinnati and was a first-time All-Pro in 2024 as the NFL's sack leader.
Contract Details
Hendrickson has played out his initial four-year deal, but the Bengals extended him during the 2023 offseason to keep him under contract through the upcoming 2025 season with an added $21 million. In the perspective of his own accounting, he's set to earn $16 million this season. His salary cap hit for the year is $18,666,668.
Coming off a career year and looking at no guaranteed money or security beyond this season, Hendrickson is demanding another extension this offseason. The Bengals have yet to offer their All-Pro DE a raise he's approved, which spurred him to request a trade three months ago. Cincinnati has held onto him in hopes of reaching an agreement, but in the meantime, Hendrickson has yet to participate in the team's offseason program. It's expected he will hold out for the foreseeable future.
Roster Outlook
If nothing else, Hendrickson is on the roster because he is under contract. The Bengals will welcome him back whenever he decides it's worth it for him to practice/play again because he's their best defensive player. Period. They've expressed desire to pay him as such, but the difference between how they view him as and how he views himself has been too vast for an agreement to be reached.
The crux of the conflict likely comes down to where Hendrickson is in his career. He'll turn 31 in December, and the Bengals may not want to guarantee him the level of money that would keep him around for the next few years. Cincinnati has made plenty of questionable roster decisions in recent memory and seem dead set on rewarding Hendrickson without committing too much as he enters the back-half of his career. The Bengals also own own all the leverage here since Hendrickson does not get paid at all this year if he refuses to play, which he has threatened.
One way or another, Hendrickson will suit up for the Bengals at some point this year. He can't afford to sit out an entire season and have his current contract not toll. He knows he needs to cash in while he's at the top of his game. It's also important to remember the last six words of that sentence. Hendrickson's contract drama has made it easy to forget just how great he's been no matter the quality of the defense around him. His game has somehow gotten better with age and he's shown no signs of slowing down. He deserves one final, multi-year contract that reflects the elite player he continues to be.
There are few quarterbacks Hendrickson can't sack, but getting the Bengals to pay him what he wants has been a battle years in the making. He's got a few more months to make the biggest play of his career.
Projected role: Starting defensive end
Previous Player Profiles
- No. 99: Myles Murphy
- No. 98: T.J. Slaton Jr.
- No. 97: Shemar Stewart
- No. 96: Cam Sample
- No. 95: Howard Cross III
- No. 94: Eric Gregory
- No. 93: McKinnley Jackson
- No. 92: B.J. Hill
