Edge rusher Trey Hendrickson wants to get 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 skipped the team’s voluntary offseason program until Monday, when the Bengals began Phase II.
“This is where separating business and team It’s tough,” Hendrickson said Monday, via Geoff Hobson of the team’s website. “At what point am I contradicting what I want? Winning games long term, all those things are what I want to do here in Cincinnati and leaving the team doesn’t help the team.”
Hendrickson signed a one-year contract extension last July and is set 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 its $21 million annual average ranks just 11th at its position. Fourteen edge rushers will earn more than Hendrickson this season.
But Hendrickson ultimately decided that staying away and training alone wouldn’t give him what he really wants.
“I want to help Dax Hill play corner. I want to help make reading the linebacker 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 saw the newcomers going through the bags with the veterans. We come together to meet as defense and begin to see how we will interact. there or letting my frustrations boil over into the defensive boardroom isn’t right.”
Hendrickson, 29, spent three seasons in Cincinnati and helped the Bengals go 31-19 in the regular season. They went to the Super Bowl in 2021 and the AFC Championship Game in 2022.
He wants more.
“My mindset is to win the Super Bowl and I think we have the quarterback and the pieces to do that,” Hendrickson said. “I want to be here for a long time. I want to win football games and I want to bring the Super Bowl to Cincinnati.”
