The Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers are doing their best to make the Cincinnati Bengals look foolish for not re-signing Trey Hendrickson yet. The Steelers, though they tried to play hard ball with T.J. Watt eventually accepted the fact that they needed Watt and paid him $123 million over three years. The Chiefs just coughed up $93 million to keep George Karlaftis in Kansas City for the next four years.
If two of Cincinnati’s biggest rivals see the value in paying their top EDGE rushers, why can’t the Bengals themselves see that? Karlaftis had 24.5 sacks through three seasons in Kansas City. Hendrickson has recorded nearly double that in the same time frame, recording 17.5 sacks in each of the last two seasons and was the NFL’s sack leader in 2024.
The Bengals have two different perspectives of how they should handle Hendrickson’s extension. While the Bengals refuse to progress contract talks, it makes it clear they aren’t learning from the teams around them and it’s only making them look worse for not deciding what to do with Hendrickson, one way or the other.
Cincinnati Bengals get contrasting ways of how to handle Trey Hendrickson deal with Chiefs latest extension
The Karlaftis and Watt deals are two contrasting perspectives for the Bengals in how they should look at Hendrickson’s looming extension. For Pittsburgh, there was no other way for them to go about it. They knew they weren’t going to win this year without him and ignoring that only made it worse.
The Steelers went all-in on this season meaning they had to pay Watt before his holdout potentially carried over into the preseason; so they did.
Kansas City, on the other hand, saw how things can go when you neglect your top EDGE rusher and wanted no parts of that. But in getting Karlaftis’ deal done, they might have overpaid to keep him around and now will face the reality of that deal.
The Bengals can look at both these options and draw conclusions about how they should handle Hendrickson’s deal. They know he’ll warrant a deal closer to Watt’s, but with massive contracts already on their books can they afford to pay another top player? And if they can, would it be worth it with a less than impressive defense right now.
And then there’s the Karlaftis side of is it worth overpaying for an EDGE rusher, especially one that’s aging and might not be one of the NFL’s top pass rushers for the duration of the contract. Regardless of how you look at it, the Bengals have to figure out Hendrickson’s situation, one way or another.
Cincinnati needs to come to the conclusion that they need Hendrickson more than they’re giving him credit for and no matter which route they take, there’s not really a better option, unless they waste another strong season from Joe Burrow, which doesn’t solve the problem either.