The Cincinnati Bengals have allowed Trey Hendrickson permission to seek a trade, and the reigning NFL sack leader should generate plenty of interest, despite the fact that he is looking for a new contract and will likely need to be paid in excess of $ 30 million per year on his presumed extension. What should teams pay for the right to commit more than 10% of their salary cap (on average, before typical cap shenanigans) to a single player?
Should the Chicago Bears be interested? If so, at what price?
According to Spotrac, since January 2020, only 9 edge defenders have been traded for premium value, or a collection of picks that was at least equal to a third-round pick. There have actually been 10 such trades, but Yannick Ngakoue was traded twice. Most of the other transactions are minor roster shuffles.
In 2024, Brian Burns, on an expiring contract, was traded by Carolina with a 5th-round pick for #39 and a future 5th-round pick from New York, with the actual value settling around #40. That same year, Haason Reddick had a rocky exit from Philadelphia and he was sent to New York for a conditional 2026 2nd-round pick that could charitably be valued around #80.
A year earlier, three premium edge rushers in need of extensions changed teams for draft picks. Leonard Williams was sent to the Seattle Seahawks for the #47 overall pick and a future 5th-rounder, bringing the approximate value up to around #45. The Washington Commanders sent away Chase Young to San Francisco for #100 and Montez Sweat joined Chicago in exchange for #40.
The best year to be dealing an edge rusher was actually 2022, because Bradley Chubb and a 2025 5th-round pick were traded to Miami for Chase Edmonds, the #29 pick, and a 2024 4th-rounder. The net value was roughly equal to #28, but it gets complicated because another player was involved. Still, given that Chubb needed an extension, that was the best value gained over the last five years by far. That same year, Chicago traded away Khalil Mack for #48 and #200 when they moved him to the Los Angeles Chargers. The net value was roughly equal to #47, but Mack was under contract for two more years.
2021 saw Von Miller sent to Los Angeles (the other one) as part of a Super Bowl run and he earned two Day Two picks (even if they were #64 and #96) with a net value of #51. The year before, Yannick Ngakoue was traded twice, once for #45 and a conditional 2025 pick and another time for #90 and a 2025 5th-round pick. The first time he netted the equivalent of the #38 overall pick; the second time it was closer to #86.
In summary, the last ten “high value” trades suggest that the range for an elite edge defender should be somewhere between #28 and #100, with a pick in the top fifty being involved in a majority of the cases but nothing breaking into the top twenty-five.
The Bears have two second-round picks in the top fifty, and they also have the ability to match that same value by trading #10 and #72 to Cincinnati for #17 and #81 (roughly forfeiting #50 in exchanged value) or the same package for #17 and #118 (roughly placing the traded pick around #37). That gives them three ways to meet the “going price” for a premium edge rusher should they choose to do so.
But why? The aforementioned Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa are only two of the potential impact players on Edge available without the cost of draft picks. Yes, there are injury concerns with both players and they will both cost money, However, it’s not as if Hendrickson won’t also cost money. Instead, Poles would be giving up the opportunity to draft a quality player of his own choosing on a price-controlled contract—for the chance to commit a large portion of the cap to the defense in the hopes of getting slightly more reliability and impact for a shorter period of time. The situation is even worse if they have shuffle later picks to also make it work (e.g. giving up a third-rounder for a fourth rounder).
If the asking price for the rights to extend Hendrickson is closer to the Chase Young deal, or the second Ngakoue trade, then it becomes more palatable. Even then, however, the Chicago Bears need to be thoughtful about sending away a third pick in the same offseason when they should be building for the long-term future of the franchise.