The Cincinnati Bengals and Trey Hendrickson can't reach a contract agreement.
The regular season is less than a month away. Hendrickson has said he won't play for the $16 million he's due this season. He'd rather be traded.
And in big news on Sunday, Cincy has at least partially acquiesced.
According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, "the Bengals are listening to trade offers" for Hendrickson.
"It's unclear if the NFL sack leader will be playing elsewhere in 2025, and a trade will be a real challenge," Rapoport adds. "But time will tell."
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Hendrickson is one of the best pass rushers in the NFL. He has 17.5 sacks in each of the past two seasons.
The fact that the Bengals would legitimately consider trading him has the potential to shake up the NFL's Super Bowl race on multiple levels.
In Cincinnati, it's a potential nightmare scenario. Even if they get back solid value in a trade, they lose their by-far best defender from a defense that really can't afford to lose talent.
Joe Burrow and the Bengals' offense are electric. But they need the defense to be better than it was in 2024 to achieve all the things they aspire to achieve.
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Elsewhere, Hendrickson becomes a possible gigantic pickup for teams who want to go win the final game of the season.
The Lions have been a popular suggestion all offseason, although it's not clear whether there are real legs to that idea at this point.
Every team can use more pass rush, especially pass rush that is as good as Hendrickson is.
It's not a given he is traded, but the emergence of this report suggests that it's a very real possibility.
The Bengals were acting as if they wouldn't give in to that desire, no matter what.
Now, they seem open to it. This story is getting more and more interesting.
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