The Bengals remain at an impasse with defensive end Trey Hendrickson and executive vice president Katie Blackburn said on Tuesday that she'd "be lying if I said I knew exactly what's going to happen" with the player.
Hendrickson is looking for a new contract and the Bengals allowed him to talk about a trade with teams that might be willing to give him one. That has not led to a move and Blackburn didn't expressly rule one out, but she also suggested that she feels like the ball is in Hendrickson's court in regard to accepting how he fits into the marketplace.
“I think he should be happy at certain rates that maybe he doesn't think he'd be happy at,” Blackburn said, via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I think some of it is on him to be happy at some point, and if he's not, you know, that's what holds it up sometimes. So, you know, it takes him to say yes to something, and also, we have all the respect in the world for him. He's been a great player. We're happy to have him. And so maybe we'll find a way to get something to work. We're just gonna see where it goes.”
Hendrickson also spent time pushing for a new deal heading into the 2024 season and the lack of one does indicate that the gap between how he views himself and how the Bengals view him isn't shifting. As long as that remains the case, it's hard to see things being resolved in a way that checks everyone's boxes.
