The Bengals Are In A VERY Messy Situation With Trey Hendrickson Right Now...

AtoZ Sports

John Sheeran talks about the latest developments in the Trey Hendrickson contract negotiations, as Bengals EVP Katie Blackburn made some questionable comments about Hendrickson at the NFL meetings earlier this week.

Transcript

00:00There is a literal he said she said situation that the Bengals are dealing with and in this video

00:04I'm gonna explain exactly what Trey Hendrickson is thinking right now

00:11Hi again Bengals fans John Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati here bringing you another edition of the saga known as

00:18Trey Hendrickson's contract extension on the surface this one kind of looks like a doozy

00:22But I think the deeper that you go into it and look at it with the finer details

00:25I think the less impactful it's actually gonna end up being for those who need an update because we haven't really talked about this and

00:30I don't know like a week Trey Hendrickson is looking for a new contract. He is under contract for just this season

00:35It's technically a 21 million dollar extension, even though he's only gonna make 16 million dollars in cash

00:40Obviously Trey Hendrickson almost one defensive player of the year. He deserves more than that

00:45He's looking for more than that. The Bengals are willing to give him more than that

00:48Now how much more is obviously the cause of this whole conflict now?

00:52There's something that everyone needs to understand about what's happening here

00:55And it's that when the Bengals are handling negotiations like this. They do not want details to be released into the public

01:01They do not want to be talking about it to reporters. They don't want the players to be talking about to reporters

01:06They want to keep things completely

01:08Internal between those four walls that they're doing all this business at and in past years when things have been like that when they've been

01:13Kept in secrecy things end up working out for both the player and the team

01:17But as soon as things start to become public whether the players talking to the press or a

01:21Representative from the team is talking about it to the press and there's details that are getting out there about what's actually going on

01:27Very rarely do good things end up happening from that and personally the reason why I believe this to be the case

01:32Is that the Bengals do not communicate very well in the eyes of you and me just the average person

01:36So in Katie Blackburn the executive vice president of the team who essentially runs the Bengals at this point when she takes her annual turn

01:43Talking to the media for about an hour down at the annual league meetings talking about a plethora of different topics and Trey Hendrickson comes

01:49Up, that's when things start to break down

01:51Okay

01:52Maybe that's a slight exaggeration

01:53But the words that she used talking about the subject did not come off as friendly because when Blackburn was asked about Hendrickson and where

01:59Things stand in negotiations. She said quote

02:01I think he should be happy at certain rates that maybe he doesn't think he'd be happy yet

02:04I think some of it is on him to be happy at some point and if he's not, you know

02:08That's what holds it up sometimes

02:09So it takes him to say yes to something and also we have all the respect in the world for him

02:14He's been a great player. We're happy to have him. And so maybe we'll find a way to get something to work

02:18We're just gonna see where it goes

02:19Now if a player hasn't accepted whatever contract offer you've offered him and then you say into a microphone that you know

02:26Is gonna be on the record. He should be happy at the offer that he has

02:30It's probably not the best way to go about this when you're talking about it from a public relations standpoint

02:34But in reality, this is kind of how the Bengals have always communicated

02:38Very rarely do we see it publicized like this because very rarely do the powers that be actually speak publicly

02:43But this is just kind of how their mind works

02:44They always want to be in the position of power and talk in a position of power

02:48But it's completely understandable that Trey Hendrickson would hear that and would take some offense to it

02:53Which he rightfully did because in a miraculous coincidence Trey Hendrickson appeared on the Pat McAfee show just a day later

02:59After Blackburn's comments became public and when asked about what Blackburn said

03:03He said quote that was a little disappointing because communication has been poor over the last couple of months

03:08That's something that I hold in high regard. They have not communicated with my agent directly

03:13It's been something that's been a little bit frustrating

03:15But again, this is the business of it now Hendrickson went on to say a bunch of other things about the situation

03:20He's very clearly frustrated about how everything is going down

03:23but I think there's a reason as to why he took the public stage right after

03:27Katie Blackburn did because as soon as basically the highest power within the Bengals organization

03:32Went public talking about how the negotiations are going and just any sort of detail regarding what is happening

03:38He took it upon himself to go back into the public forum

03:41Remember, this is not the first time he's talked about this publicly

03:43He went on the McAfee show during the Super Bowl week at Radio Row

03:46I think there was another program where he was talking about it as well

03:49And he's doing this to get you on his side

03:51And I think for the most part he has a lot of valid points

03:54But he wants you on his side because he doesn't have an ounce of leverage in this like it sucks. It really does

04:00I think there are ways to just get past this and create an amicable solution

04:04But that's not how the Bengals want to take this and unfortunately, they have all the power here

04:08So Trey can complain to Pat McAfee

04:10However much he wants and he can get everyone in the fan base and around the NFL

04:14To take his side about how the Bengals are being cruel and unusual towards him

04:17But at the end of the day the Bengals hold his contract rights

04:20They don't have to trade him if they don't want to they don't have to pay him

04:23If they don't want to regarding a new extension and as smart as it would be to pay Trey Hendrickson what he's worth and pay it

04:28As soon as possible

04:30They have the power to make him accept whatever contract that they want because he realizes that he can hold out this season

04:36He can't enter free agency at 31 years old after not playing out the 2025 season

04:41He knows that this is his best chance at getting one last payday one last contract with multiple years with guaranteed money on it

04:49And I don't know what the Bengals have or haven't offered him in regards to those details

04:53But he knows that this is the best chance for him to get that and airing out this dirty laundry is in his mind

04:58The only way that he can nudge them in that direction

05:01and the reason why his efforts here are probably not going to pay off the way that he wants them to

05:05Is because the Bengals do not care one iota about looking like the villain

05:10Yeah, they'll take victory laps around talking heads when they pay players that no one expects them to pay

05:14Or they win games that no one expects them to win

05:16But when it comes to either rule changes or contract standoffs, they always stay on the ground

05:22So do I think that the events of this week is going to impact what kind of offer Trey gets?

05:26Or what kind of timetable we're looking at about when an extension could be reached?

05:30No, I don't think so

05:31I think Trey realizes the situation that he's in and he didn't want to rely on an agent who's clearly

05:36Not done very good work for him in the past couple of years and he took it upon himself to try to get himself

05:41Out of this mess, but unfortunately he's stuck in it and I think he knows it

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