With All-Pro Trey Hendrickson and first-round pick Shemar Stewart, the Bengals have two major contract disputes weighing on the team. Both happen to come at the same position, and both players threaten to sit out. While the team showed its willingness to pay offensive players this offseason, though, what does the locker room think?
Former Steelers OL Willie Colon never played for the Bengals, but he has been in a lot of locker rooms. As a former player, he weighed in on how he would feel with the Hendrickson and Stewart disputes hanging over the team as they prepare for training camp.
“I’d feel nervous and unsettled”, Colon said on Good Morning Football about the Bengals’ plight. “Solely because Trey Hendrickson is all we have on the defensive side of the ball. We know what Joe Burrow can do. Joe Burrow threw 40 touchdowns last season and they were losing football games. Defensively, they just couldn’t stop anybody. If I score 100 points and you score 101 points, you win the game. And that’s on the defense”.
Last season, Trey Hendrickson posted an NFL-high 17.5 sacks for the Bengals and earned first-team All-Pro honors. He’s recorded 17.5 sacks in each of the past two seasons, but is unwilling to play under his current contract. With Hendrickson threatening to hold out, it sure would be nice to be actively developing Shemar Stewart. But they’re not, and it’s because of an issue they forced on themselves.
“This Bengals team wants to talk about new things”, he said, referring to Hendrickson and Stewart. Their contracts dominate Bengals headlines right now, even with an otherwise big, costly offfseason. “How can they get better? How can they compete in a division that’s gotten better? Say what you want about the Pittsburgh Steelers, but they want to be competitive”.
In 2024, the Bengals averaged 27.8 points per game, but allowed 25.5. They ranked sixth in the former category, but only 25th in the latter. And that was with an All-Pro pass rusher in Trey Hendrickson. The Bengals haven’t really upgraded the defense since last offseason, so how will that change? Meanwhile, you’re creating problems with your star pass-rusher and your would-be next on, Shemar Stewart.
“You’re unsettled going into a training camp that’s looking for a new way out of the hole”, Colon said. He is talking about the Bengals’ recent history of starting seasons off slowly with losing records. More often than not, they have to try to climb their way out of the hole. Sometimes they’re successful, even making playoff runs. Last year, they didn’t even make the playoffs.
And the Bengals not having Trey Hendrickson or Shemar Stewart on defense certainly won’t help them. Everyone in that locker room knows that, and surely, they won’t feel great about this issues lingering into training camp. Perhaps the Hendrickson situation is more understandable, a veteran under contract. In this day and age, though, it’s hard to justify a rookie contract dispute going this far.
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