DE Trey Hendrickson speaks on Bengals 'poor' communication, comments from Katie Blackburn: 'That was a little disappointing'

After paying its two top receivers last month, the Cincinnati Bengals might be running into a problem. The team has reached an impasse in contract talks with Pro Bowl defensive end Trey Hendrickson, who is starting to take his frustration public.

Hendrickson went on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday to discuss stalled talks in his contract, and addressing comments from Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn. At the NFL's annual meeting on Tuesday, Blackburn implied that Hendrickson had been the reason that talks had stalled because he was asking for more money.

Hendrickson said on Wednesday that he initially hoped that Blackburn's comments, which were published on April 1, was an April Fools' Day joke.

"That was a little disappointing, 'cause communication has been poor over the last couple of months," Hendrickson said, adding that the team had not directly talked to his agent and that the lack of communication had been "frustrating."

Hendrickson currently has a year remaining on his contract, and is due $15.8 million in base salary. The defensive end said Wednesday that the Bengals have told him that they want to work out a deal this year — something that the team has said publicly as well, although less forcefully than they did about Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins ahead of their historic contracts.

On Wednesday, Hendrickson implied that he wasn't in the loop on the deals that Cincinnati signed with its top receivers. "When it comes to my situation, it would've been nice to know," he said, clarifying that he didn't "want to take anything away from" Chase and Higgins.

The defensive end added that he wasn't looking to break records with his contract, saying that he and his wife "try to be as humble as possible."

"We don't have any desires of being highest-paid, or first in line. We try to be as patient as possible," Hendrickson said.

On Tuesday, Blackburn had said in her state of the franchise address that the Bengals were in the process of reaching a deal with the ...