Safely at a contract negotiations impasse, the Cincinnati Bengals have granted veteran star defensive end Trey Hendrickson permission to seek a trade.
Of course, theIndianapolis Coltshave already been speculated as a potential leading trade suitor for Hendrickson given their established familiarity, as Indianapolis brought over his former Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo earlier this offseason, and their defensive line coach Charlie Partridge was his prior head coach at Florida Atlantic (2014-16):
“Trey Hendrickson was in the Bengals office today, talking to Bengals’ brass, [who gave] him permission to seek a trade, and I do expect him to get moved,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said on Thursday evening. “There’s going to be significant interest. There’s already been significant interest.”
“I would of course, keep an eye basically on all of the teams who would need one of the best pass rushers in the NFL—which is basically all of them. But among the teams, the Indianapolis Colts. They have Lou Anarumo, his former defensive coordinator, last year [was] with the Cincinnati Bengals. Fired and went to the Colts. They need an edge. This one makes a lot of sense. There’s going to be plenty of other teams as well.”
For what it’s worth, Hendrickson also spoke glowingly of Anarumo a few weeks ago on ‘The Pat McAfee Show.’
The 30-year-old former 2017 3rd round pick of the New Orleans Saints led the league with 17.5 total sacks this past season—earning First-Team NFL All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors. He also finished second in NFL Defensive Player of the Year voting.
Additionally, Hendrickson added 46 tackles (33 solo), 19 tackles for loss, a whopping 83 QB pressures, 6 passes defensed, and 2 forced fumbles during all 17 starts.
His 35.0 combined total sacks over the past two seasons also are the most in the NFL.
Hendrickson is entering the last year of his current Cincy contract, which has an $18.7M cap hit. His next multi-year contract, with whichever team trades for him, will assuredly not be cheap.
Specifically, one of his top pass rushing peers, Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby just freshly inked a 3-year, $106.5M contract extension—which makes him the highest paid non-quarterback in the league.
After cutting backup defensive tackle Raekwon Davis, the Colts have a projected $40.4M of total team salary cap space available, so Indy would likely have to make other veteran cuts—including releasing veteran starting right tackle Braden Smith ($16.75M savings) and possibly returning defensive end Samson Ebukam($7.49M respectively) to stay under the threshold in order to acquire Hendrickson and secure him to a mega-contract extension (or perhaps otherwise trading former first rounder Kwity Paye, who’s due a $13.4M cap hit in 2025).
Sent draft pick compensation in NFL trades rarely match the talent of the star player being acquired, especially with Hendrickson due a major contract extension by his next team and recently hitting 30-years-old, so he’d likely be able to be had for a second or third round pick by his next NFL landing spot. Could that actually be the Colts?