Trey Hendrickson Ranked Lower Than Expected, Gets Surprising Label on Free Agent List

CINCINNATI — Trey Hendrickson has been at the top of most NFL free agency player rankings heading into the 2026 cycle, but NFL Media's Gregg Rosenthal doesn't see it that way.

He had the Bengals star edge rusher down at No. 6 overall on his list posted Monday.

Boom-Or-Bust

Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson (91) celebrates a sack in the fourth quarter of the NFL Week 1 game between the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. The Bengals begin the season with a 17-16 win over the Browns. | Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"Only one season removed from finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, Hendrickson hits free agency again, this time as a 31-year-old coming off core muscle surgery. He’s a boom-or-bust signing for a team looking to get over the hump," Rosenthal wrote.

Hendrickson has passed the 30-year-old marker that generally brings a downturn in production as elite players' bodies start to break down. The Bengals still haven't officially decided on franchise tagging him for the first time after using the tag on Tee Higgins last offseason.

Hendrickson played just seven games last season after an offseason full of contract haggling with the Bengals front office. If other teams view him as a "boom-or-bust" signing, it could be difficult to move him in a tag-and-trade deal.

Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin knows this situation all too well.

"I’d like to get deals done early.," Tobin said last month. "We’ve done it from time to time. I don’t know if it hasn’t been able to be done. You’re referencing Tee and Ja’Marr, I guess. Trey wasn’t a young guy, and we’ve done multiple deals with Trey. That one was contentious. There are a lot of contentious deals. We’re not on an island by ourselves in that kind of stuff. That’s the way of the world. We have to place a value on a player.

"They’ll place their own value on themselves. We have to come to something that makes sense for both. When I negotiate with a player or agent, I’m not negotiating against that player or agent. I’m negotiating on behalf of the rest of our football team. On behalf of the city of Cincinnati, which wants the best football team it can have. I’m not saying you deserve less, and it’s isolated in a cocoon. I’m trying to preserve as much as I can to do other things that will benefit all of us."

Check out the full rankings from Rosenthal here.

For more on the Bengals, subscribe to our YouTube Channel and watch the video below as part of our in-depth coverage of the team. Prefer to listen? Check out Cincinnati Bengals Talk on Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Podcasts.

Make sure you bookmark BengalsTalk.com for the latest Bengals news, exclusive interviews, insight, film breakdowns, and so much more!

Also, check out the podcast, Locked On Bengals, wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple: bit.ly/BengalsApple

Spotify: bit.ly/BengalsSpotify

YouTube: bit.ly/LOBengalsYouTube

-----

Follow us on X: @BengalsTalkSI

Like Our Facebook Page

Follow on TikTok