Trey Hendrickson.
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Following a bevy of contracts being made on Monday, March 9, Trey Hendrickson is still an available free agent.
The NFL’s “tampering” period began at noon Eastern time on Monday, March 9, and right away, it brought fireworks. But, the big Trey Hendrickson news is that there wasn’t any, and the edge is still a free agent as the official NFL free agency period nears on Wednesday, March 11.
So, are the Detroit Lions in the mix, at all, for Hendrickson? The team didn’t get dream edge Maxx Crosby of Las Vegas Raiders, with Crosby instead being traded to the Baltimore Ravens for 2026 and 2027 first-round picks.
While the Lions already have one of the league’s top-rated defensive ends in Aidan Hutchinson, they’ve been here before, and they don’t have a strong enough player to pair with him. Hutchinson and Crosby would have been a dream team, but so would Hutch and Hendrickson.
NFL Experts Discuss the Possibility of Trey Hendrickson Coming to the Detroit Lions
In a Sunday, March 8 feature for SI, the Detroit Lions roundtable discusses various aspects of the Lions’ free agency period, including the idea of Hendrickson still being a viable candidate for Detroit.
Christian Booher says that for the Detroit Lions to have a successful free agency period, they “need to find a starter for both the offensive and defensive line for it to be a successful free agency.” He adds, “It starts with the team restructuring contracts to give them the opportunity to do that, so there will need to be some maneuvering done in the coming days.”
When it comes to Hendrickson, Booher says that getting the edge would be a “big swing on the defensive side.” Unfortunately, he doesn’t ultimately see it happening.
“I would put the odds of the Lions signing Hendrickson pretty low,” he states in the piece. “For starters, the Lions would be breaking character in terms of how Holmes typically approaches free agency, as they normally use it to supplement their core that is built through the NFL draft.”
He adds that “Hendrickson is coming off an injury and wasn’t his best self when healthy for the Bengals. He’s still the consensus top player available and would help the Lions greatly, I am just not sure that the team will ultimately make the move.”
Trey Hendrickson Contract Would Likely Be Too Large for Brad Holmes of the Detroit Lions
Vito Chirco adds his take and says the “odds are slim to none.” He makes a good point that general manager Brad Holmes likely won’t spend “big money to land a high-impact free agent like Hendrickson.” Instead, he sees them going after a “mid-tier edge,” as boring as that sounds.
Daniel Popper of The Athletic names Hendrickson the best remaining free agent heading into Wednesday, March 11. “Hendrickson is a capable edge setter in the run game, but he tops this list primarily because of his pass-rush production,” he notes in the feature.
So, while Hendrickson is really the last chance for the Lions to make a splash with their edge position in free agency, it just isn’t going that direction. Still, it would be nice to see the team team pull off some kind of big deal, like Hendrickson, in free agency instead of the usual, smaller signings.