Booger McFarland offered up his reaction after Cincinnati Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson reached a new deal with the team on Monday. The Bengals agreed to increase Hendrickson’s salary to $30 million for the 2025 season, a raise of about $14 million. McFarland took to X shortly after the reports emerged to give his thoughts. […]
Booger McFarland offered up his reaction after Cincinnati Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson reached a new deal with the team on Monday. The Bengals agreed to increase Hendrickson’s salary to $30 million for the 2025 season, a raise of about $14 million.
McFarland took to X shortly after the reports emerged to give his thoughts. Certainly the defensive end having his salary almost doubled must be nice, but McFarland believes Hendrickson ultimately settled for less than he wanted.
“Big raise He said he wasn’t playing without a new deal,” McFarland wrote. “Not what he wanted but….. large cap number for Bengals to carry.”
Hendrickson’s contract is still set to expire at the end of this season, at which point he can work out a new deal with the team or sign elsewhere. But the deal at least ends talks for now after the Bengals were reportedly listening to trade offers for the star defensive end just a week ago.
Hendrickson has been practicing with the team since the end of July after initially refusing to practice for the start of training camp. He is coming off of a year in which he led the NFL with 17.5 sacks in addition to two forced fumbles, six passes defended and 46 total tackles.
The defensive end is getting ready to enter his ninth NFL season overall and his fifth with Cincinnati. He has made the Pro Bowl in all four seasons with the Bengals and finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting this past year.
But to McFarland’s point, the Bengals take a big hit to their cap room as a result. Hendrickson isn’t the only player that Cincinnati paid big this offseason. The Bengals doled out big contracts to receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins this offseason, with Chase’s $61 million deal making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league.
Along with quarterback Joe Burrow, the Bengals now have four players on their roster who are making $30 million annually. Hendrickson is one of six NFL edge rushers at or above that salary threshold, according to OverTheCap.com.
All that in mind, it will be interesting to see how things play out this offseason with Hendrickson. But for now, he is focused on the upcoming season and helping the Bengals make a run in the playoffs. Cincinnati kicks off the 2025 season on Sept. 7 against the Cleveland Browns.
Category: Football
