Trey Hendrickson Update

[*ochocincos*]

(Yesterday, 12:19 PM)TecmoBengals Wrote: Interesting take. The more I think about it, I agree: I'd have prioritized Trey over Tee. I wonder what influenced Tee over Trey? Was it Mike valuing skill players, the Burrow comments, Tee being on the tag, ownership locking on a deal is a deal with Trey, etc.?

I would have to guess it was:
1) Age (26 for Higgins vs 30 for Hendrickson)
2) Impact to signing Chase long-term (reportedly Chase was waiting for Higgins deal to get done before he would sign)

We know the FO has been wary to sign players 30+ years old in fear they will (greatly) decline in performance by the end of that contract. And if they do sign them, they typically don't try to sign them more than 2 years because of that worry.
We know Hendrickson would prefer to retire a Bengal, and he probably has another few years left.
Bengals might be offering another 2-year extension to keep him through 2027, which would be when he turns 33 years old.
But Hendrickson might think he has another 3-4 years beyond this year and wants to be signed through 2028-2029, making him 34-35 years old.
At age 30, he's shown no signs of slowing down yet, putting up his best numbers of his career the past 2 years, so I think he's got another 3 good years for sure, and he can probably play another 1-2 after that at what I would say would be "at least" a solid (6-8 sacks) level.

If you can work out a 3-year extension that is ~$90-100 mill where it's more front-loaded to help justify not paying him more when he's nearing the end, I think that's the best.