Bengals Won’t Rule Out Trey Hendrickson Return

Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson is set to be an unrestricted free agent when the new league year starts, and the Bengals were said to be gauging his value at the combine to potentially trade or tag him. 

Cincinnati director of player personnel Duke Tobin didn’t entirely shut the door on Hendrickson coming back. While he didn’t sound convicted either way, Tobin at least kept a return for Hendrickson on the table. 

“I never will rule out any possibility,” Tobin said, via SiriusXM NFL Radio. “He’s a good football player. So, is there a chance he’ll be with us? We’re in the business of good football players, so I can’t rule it out. But I don’t know what the future holds.”

He also talked about potentially using the tag but admitted the timing of the combine prevents him from speaking too much on it because it would reveal their intentions to the rest of the league. 

“And in terms of the tag, we’re still moving through that. I don’t have a definite answer there. We have resources, and how we deploy them are things that will come out. Unfortunately, this event never really provides me an opportunity to be transparent. It really doesn’t because it falls when it falls. We’re not gonna announce our intentions for the 31 other teams to know, well, you know, it is or it isn’t. And maybe internally, we’re still struggling with the dynamic of exactly how to best go about this. That’s where we are at the moment.”

Hendrickson held out the whole offseason and into training camp while seeking a long-term deal that he felt fairly reflected his production over the last few years. Ultimately, the two sides compromised on a one-year raise to keep him in Cincinnati for the season. 

He picked up a core injury in Week 6 and re-aggravated it when trying to play through it in Week 8. He ultimately wasn’t able to return from the injury.  

Hendrickson, 31, was selected with the No. 103 overall pick by the Saints out of Florida Atlantic in 2017. He finished his four-year rookie contract worth $3,106,288, which included a signing bonus of $706,284.

Hendrickson then signed a four-year, $60 million contract with the Bengals back in 2021 and went on to appear in the Super Bowl for the team. Cincinnati signed him to a one-year extension through 2025 in 2023. 

He was due a base salary of $15.8 million in the final year of his contract in 2025 when he and the team agreed to a $14 million raise to resolve a holdout. 

In 2025, Hendrickson appeared in seven games for the Bengals, recording 16 total tackles, four sacks, one forced fumble and a pass deflection.

We have him included in our Top 100 – 2026 NFL Free Agents.