Our long regional nightmare is over…. Yes, after six months of posturing, trade demands, content farming, hold-in press conferences in golf wear, and social media screeching “Pay the man!” as one, Trey Hendrickson has at last re-signed for the 2025 season in Cincinnati. Or, more accurately, since he was already under contract, he re-signed to play the 2025 season for more money—$14 million more.
The Bengals are absolutely, resolutely determined not to be stuck paying large guaranteed sums to players on the wrong side of age 30, even ones as productive as Hendrickson. As such, they preferred to hand over a big raise in 2025 in order not to be on the hook for $30 million-plus bucks next year when he’ll be in his age-32 season.
In the nitty-gritty of contractual fine print, the Bengals “won” the negotiation, retaining the right to franchise tag Hendrickson in 2026, which will cost them in the mid-$30 million should they go that route and undoubtedly provoke yet another offseason battle with their best defensive player. It’s hard to feel bad for Hendrickson. Yes, he’s been underpaid relative to his peers, but he signed those deals, particularly the mini-extension in 2023 that vaporized his leverage, and he has been playing catch-up ever since. It’s ironically akin to a team being forced to pass while behind late in a game, exposing their QB to great edge rushers—like Trey Hendrickson!
The Brown/Blackburn front office looks at guaranteeing dollars to aging players like Dracula looks at a cross—both leave bad singe marks on the skin. The Bengals ownership group isn’t cheap, but they are reactionary. They see the money given to older players like Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlap, and A.J. Green not as the cost of doing business but as limbs they cut off their metaphorical body. The team is bound and determined not to be caught in such contracts again.
In that context, Hendrickson having a big 2025 for Cincinnati would further their Super Bowl chances while also perhaps providing a counter-example to dislodge the front office from this cemented mindset. It’s hard to argue with the overall viewpoint that not paying aging players big money is Roster Building 101. But there are exceptions, and these endless contract kerfuffles—while red meat to lawyerly types in the C-Suite—are exhausting for fans. Bengals ownership broadening their horizons can only help the franchise going forward.
In other recent developments, waiver wire day came and went with Cincinnati announcing a single signing: offensive guard Dalton Risner. Seldom does anyone claimed in late August make much of a difference, but it would be nice to see the team thinking long-term and grabbing talented developmental players who might step forward down the line. Preseason results mean little, but one thing they can indicate is whether a team’s depth is sufficient beyond the front-line players. Given the NFL’s injury rate, this consideration usually winds up being important at some point during the season.
And Cincinnati’s depth is clearly wanting, something we knew even before the preseason. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the offensive line, where the Bengals added Risner to a group of just eight players. Guard Cordell Volson is lost for the season, an injury that somehow might come to look devastating in the months ahead. Barring a signing over the next week and change, Cincinnati will roll into the 2025 campaign with two good tackles, Orlando Brown and Amarius Mims, both of whom were hurt in 2024; center Ted Karras, a good pass blocker who tends to get overpowered in the run game; rookie Dylan Fairchild at left guard; and Risner stepping in on the right instead of gimpy mediocrity Lucas Patrick or another mid-round rookie, Jalen Rivers. Promising but raw Matt Lee backs up Karras, and Cody Ford, the definition of “replacement-level,” is the swing tackle and can fill in at guard in a pinch.
That’s the unit. Sure, compared to previous lines in the Burrow Era, ones that made Jonah Williams look elite, this is paradise. But it’s awfully thin and reliant on untested youth inside. Every NFL team has holes, even the Philadelphia Eagles, but given the moolah the Bengals have spent on offense they’re playing with fire with their protective front as usual.
But let’s stay optimistic—it’s August, after all! The main on-field story from Cincinnati training camp was the overall brilliance and continued improvement of Joe Burrow, if that’s possible. He of course tempted fate and gave me an ulcer by insisting on playing in the preseason. It almost seemed like, true to his Joe Dirt persona, Burrow deliberately hung on to the ball so he could take a few hits. That raised hackles across the NFL landscape, but as we all know he calls the shots.
Zac Taylor might have saved Burrow from himself, but given the whole slow-start narrative he felt powerless to do so. Consider me one who calls BS on the whole “Zac is 1-11 in the first two weeks” mini-controversy. Yes, starting slow can hurt a team and losing to the Patriots in last year’s opener was Chekhov’s Defeat, looming all season and shooting the Bengals in the final act.
But I’d much rather have a team that’s annually excellent in December/January (the Bengals are 23-8 under Zac in those two months) than one that always starts fast and zombie-walks at season’s end, like Mike Tomlin’s Steelers teams of late or Marvin Lewis’ Cincinnati teams. Bill Belichick also looked at the first half of the season as experimental, and post-Thanksgiving is when your team really comes together. (And he knows something about December, given his May-December romance…)
The common denominator of the slow starts has been Burrow’s health, or lack of it. This is the first training camp of his career that he’s been entirely healthy, save the first one, which didn’t happen at all thanks to COVID. The lifeless losses to the Pats last year, the Browns in 2023, the Steelers in 2022, and the Bears in 2021 were all marked by an unrecognizable Joey B. He recovered and turned in strong performances after the early bumps, of course, but there is the sense that 2025 may at last be the season that features a dominant Burrow for 17 games (and beyond, imshallah).
Joey Franchise earned the nickname by forcing the Bengals to sign Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Mike Gesicki this offseason. Given any semblance of protection, the passing game can’t help but be elite, with newly added tight end Noah Fant yet another potential target who might emerge. Chase Brown was very quietly among the league’s top backs in the second half of last season, and rookie Tahj Brooks and old pal Samaje Perine give the running back room much more depth than a year ago. Andrei Iosivas continues his upward trajectory, Charlie Jones was healthy and highly productive in camp, and even undrafted wideout Mitchell Tinsley played so well the team was forced to keep him on the roster.
If the worst-case scenario is the Bengals are forced to win a raft of shootouts, they are certainly well-equipped to do so.
We’re getting close to kickoff at last! Next week will be my true season preview, and then the games will finally begin.
Robert Weintraub heads up Bengals coverage for Cincinnati Magazine and has written for The New York Times, Grantland, Slate, and Deadspin. Follow him on X at @robwein.
Facebook Comments