Edge rusher Trey Hendrickson wants to be paid, but he also wants to win a Super Bowl.
And he wants to win a Super Bowl in Cincinnati.
Unhappy with his contract, Hendrickson requested a trade last month. He had skipped the team’s voluntary offseason program until Monday when the Bengals began Phase II.
“This is where separating business and the team is difficult,” Hendrickson said Monday, via Geoff Hobson of the team website. “At what point am I contradicting what I want? Long-term, winning games, all those things are what I want to do here in Cincinnati and removing myself from the team doesn’t help the team.”
Hendrickson signed a one-year contract extension last July and is due to make $14.8 million in 2024 and $15.8 million in 2025. He wants more long-term security after 17.5 sacks in 2023.
Hendrickson calls the Bengals’ front office “transparent and respectful,” but his $21 million annual average ranks only 11th at his position. Fourteen edge rushers will make more than Hendrickson does this season.
But Hendrickson finally decided that staying away and training on his own isn’t getting him what he really wants.
“I want to help Dax Hill play corner. I want to help make the linebacker reads easier for Germaine [Pratt] and Logan [Wilson]. I want to help get the ball back for Joey B [Burrow],” Hendrickson said. “What the 2024, 2025 Bengals look like, today was the first brick.
“We got to see rookies run through bags with the veterans. We got together to meet as a defense, and we began to see how we’ll interact. It’s the first look at what we’ll be, and for me not to be there or to let my frustrations pour over into the defensive meeting room is not right.”
Hendrickson, 29, has spent three seasons in Cincinnati and has helped the Bengals go 31-19. They went to the Super Bowl in 2021 and to the AFC Championship Game in 2022.
He wants more.
“My mindset is to win a Super Bowl, and I think we’ve got the quarterback and the pieces to do it,” Hendrickson said. “I want to be here a long time. I want to win football games, and I want to bring a Super Bowl to Cincinnati.”