The Cincinnati Bengals have made a few nice moves so far this offseason, adding Boye Mafe and Bryan Cook to the defense on big deals to bolster the lackluster defense.
But while the Bengals are improving their team, the Baltimore Ravens have seemingly been taking a step back. They're losing a lot of talent in free agency, and they even backed out of their blockbuster trade for Maxx Crosby.
However, unfortunately for the Bengals and Joe Burrow, the Ravens didn't take long to move on and replace Crosby on defense. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Ravens and Trey Hendrickson are in agreement on a four-year, $112 million contract.
Trey Hendrickson leaves Bengals for Ravens in $112M deal
"Ravens and Trey Hendrickson reached an agreement on a four-year, $112 million contract," Schefter reported Wednesday morning.
This move for the Ravens comes not long after they backed out of the Crosby trade with the Las Vegas Raiders with the excuse of Crosby failing his physical.
Now, with the Ravens getting back both of their first-round picks and also landing Hendrickson, the outlook for 2026 and beyond looks a bit different.
While having Hendrickson on a deal very similar to that of Crosby and still keeping both first-rounders is appealing, the circumstances for how they got here are a bit strange.
From the Bengals' perspective, losing Hendrickson was always the most likely outcome this offseason. The only question was how much he would sign for and where he would go.
More: Bengals to sign Boye Mafe to $60 million three-year contract
While there was an initial relief that Crosby wasn't actually joining the Ravens, seeing Hendrickson go to Baltimore stings. He had 61 sacks for the Bengals over five years, including two 17.5 sack seasons.
Such a solid pass rusher is joining the AFC North division rival, and on a big deal to boot as well. $112 million over four years is at least $28 million per-year, and that doesn't even include incentives, which could make it worth up to $120 million, or $30M per-year.
Wednesday morning brought some bad news for the Bengals, as Hendrickson is leaving Cincinnati in free agency to join the rival Ravens after they lost out on Crosby by backing out of the blockbuster trade with the Raiders.
More Bengals news: