Bengals Plan to Pursue Multiple Defensive Starters in Free Agency Following Trey Hendrickson's Departure

Following the news of the Bengals' passing on using the franchise tag on Trey Hendrickson, the team plans to use its resources saved from having to pay Hendrickson to instead attack free agency heavily in an effort to fix the defense.

NFL insider Ian Rapoport said as such after the franchise tag deadline passed, noting the Bengals will take the money they saved and spread it out over the defense and try to improve the overall deficiencies of the unit.

"It does seem like the Bengals are gonna take that money, spread it out over their defense to try and improve the overall unit." Rapoport said.

From @NFLNetwork: #Bengals edge Trey Hendrickson is free, becoming one of the top players available. pic.twitter.com/ulgI2QuZA1
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 4, 2026

With the drama of the Trey Hendrickson saga finally coming to a close, it is paramount as Joe Burrow said earlier after the end of the season that the Bengals front office looks at every single avenue when it comes to improving the team this offseason.

The goal is to win now and bring the city of Cincinnati its first Super Bowl win sooner rather than later, and maximize the window they have with Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins.

Prioritizing high-impact playmakers in free agency that could solidify weak positions like
John Franklin-Myers, and Odafe Oweh, along with many others, is the most important thing.

Cincinnati has a ton of staff continuity to make magic happen this coming season.

"I do. I think, especially when you look at our defensive staff, we're light years ahead of where we were last year," Head coach Zac Taylor said at the 2026 NFL Combine. "We were talking scheme every day and trying to get up to speed on where our current players are because a lot of these guys were, obviously, hadn't been here. We'd just hired them. So, now, we've immediately - we didn't take a very long vacation. We were back in the office very quickly for the reason of being on top of free agency and the draft process so that we can get all of the information and all of our thoughts and feelings on players to Duke and his staff.

"So, now we can go at this together and formulate the best opinions for our team. I didn't exactly hear what Duke (Tobin) said but I know we are so much further along in this process. That's maybe the best way I could put it but we're in a very confident place right now as coaches. They always do their work ahead of schedule but we're in a great place right now as coaches and can get that information to those guys."

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