One Ravens Player Who Should Surprisingly Be Traded Before the Deadline

There is no ideal time to get out of the Trey Hendrickson contract. Only a half season into what amounts to a two-year, $60M deal it looks pretty disastrous.

And, like oh so many of the contracts executed by failing general manager Eric Decosta, it carries nasty cap and cash ramifications for a team in salary-cap hell because of terrible contract situations with Mark Andrews, Marlon Humphrey, Roquan Smith, John Simpson and others. All the while Tyler Linderbaum and Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar and Pat Ricard left as free agents.

That’s bad business. And worse football.

Oh, and unlike every other NFL team with an elite quarterback, they can never get Lamar Jackson extended when they should when the market resets, so his $84M cap hit in 2027 hangs over everything (he controls their offseason) while their season spirals to the abyss. This is a mess. It runs years deep into the future and every effort should and must be made to start getting out of it (the entire league sees this for what it is). And, believe it or not, there is also a case to be made that moving on from Hendrickson – one of the more consequential signings in recent franchise history.

This season is over – not even the Ravens themselves can seriously believe Jackson is going to swoop into this tragedy in all three phases of football and bail them out against all odds in December – and, this I can tell you without a doubt, the conversations about their horrific cash/cap outlays in future are well underway. No one could dare sugarcoat that (especially with Jackson having all contract leverage with the no-trade and no-tag provisions).

Given all of that, here’s why I’d advise getting out of Hendrickson now by any means necessary.

Why He Should Go - Football

Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Orlando Brown (75) defends against Baltimore Ravens linebacker Trey Hendrickson (91) in the first quarter of the NFL Week 7 game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. The Ravens led 13-0 at halftime. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

This was really a play for 2026, trying to win right away despite the most inexperienced (and as we’ve come to find out, naive, coaching staff in the NFL (even Miami’s head coach had been a college head coach before, and this staff has more in common with Miami’s than any in the NFL). Hendrickson was their parachute when the front office had second thoughts about trading two first-round picks for Maxx Crosby (turns out he was worth it) to address years of a suspect pass rush.

Hendrickson was lingering on the market because he was 32, he can’t play the run and that will only get much worse at that age. He has been injury prone lately and he spent a lot of time finding reasons not to play for the Bengals in recent years. His financial ask was seen as to steep according to execs from multiple teams who were exploring pass-rush options, and when DeCosta pounced executives around the league began calling this out. DeCosta, meantime, tried to sell his fans on a master plan to and Crosby and Hendrickson.

Hendrickson looked like a $30M a year guy in Week 1 against the hapless Colts, hurt his finger and has not shown up in the fourth quarter all season. Hailed as a closer, undrafted special teams rookie Ethan Burke has more sacks than him in the fourth quarter. He isn’t even in the top two on the team in sacks and this pass rush is impotent (3.5 sacks leads them). His 12% pressure rate in the fourth quarter is a try-hard guy, not a game-wrecker and 2027 it a retool year no matter how they try to spin it.

“This isn’t going to age well,” said one longtime NFL personnel executive who has watched Hendrickson closely. “You make a move like that, something they never do (big free-agent signing), Year One, he’s supposed to pop.

“Come in, take the game over, make the young guys better. You see the same thing I do ... They talked him up like the guy who changes your defense when he walks in the locker room and they still blow a lead every time they get it with this guy … This is worse than (former defensive coordinator Zach) Orr’s tape, and they stuck him with (aging quasi-pass rusher Kyle) Van Noy.

“This is a disaster, man. Don’t let anybody tell you anything different. I watched his tape. It gets worse every week … They have the hand bandaged up like an amputee. The guys (broadcasting the games) in the booth can’t miss it. That’s all you’re going to hear about now.”

Indeed, overmatched rookie head coach Jesse Minter, when asked about mustering two sacks in the last three games while allowing 33 points or more in all of them, immediately brought up Hendrickson’s finger procedure from early in the season. They had seven total pressures as a team with their season on the line against Jacksonville at home, mind you, and THE CLOSER had none.

“We have one guy really kind of playing through having one free hand,” he said. So all the more reason to sit him – better yet: man up and trade him – and play the kids after four straight horrific losses with Hendrickson doing nothing to help the NFL’s worst second-half defense (while leading the league in choking).

Mike Green is one of few ascending young defensive players on this roster, he should be playing more and while he isn’t special against the run he is a helluva lot better than Hendrickson (especially playing with one hand). They both primarily want to line up over the left tackle. One is young and cheap and the other makes $29M more next year.

Does having Hendrickson coming off a washout first season here set to be the second-highest paid player on the team next year make sense when you know Steve Bisciotti is going to want to cut payroll after DeCosta lit $370M on fire this year and couldn’t keep them truly in the hunt past Halloween? Does having him blocking guys like Tavius Robinson (on IR for weeks and still more sacks than Hendrickson) in 2027 make sense? And what about the growth of DeCosta’s latest day-two pass rush reach (my does the epic list of failures here run long) Zion Young, and Green, too?

And if you are scoring at home, the Ravens are getting real low on draft capital after panic moves for Cam Jurgens (we told you that was an all-time laugher in real-time) and Jacoby Brissett. They need picks, badly. And with DeCosta’s draft record so poor, they really need all the picks they can get. And with so many bad contracts they don't have many they can get anything back for.

As one GM said: "(Hendrickson contract) looks terrible now, and it was questionable when they did it, especially after the Crosby thing ... Could (Hendrickson) get one, year, $30M, fully guaranteed, right now, coming off this, if he was a UFA (unrestricted free agent)?"

Touche!

Why He Should Go – Business

Yeah, trading him now will only save $2M against the cap next year, but every penny helps especially if they have to carry Jackson into the league year at $84M. This team is stuck with basically $100M in cap/dead cap tied up in Andrews, Humphrey, Simpson, Smith, Ronnie Stanley, Derrick Henry, Rashod Bateman no matter what they do (designating two as post-June 1 cuts would help some, but not all that much).

If they wait to make a move on Hendrickson until 2027, you are looking at a $25M cap hit and if they deal him now and admit defeat, that number would be $16M for 2027. He hasn’t been the kind of guy who can put together a full season to be worth $30M a year for a while now, and even these masters of gaslighting till have a hard time pretending they have a Lombardi roster next year.

Is that a risk the Ravens should be willing to take again in 2027 with that $29M fully guaranteed? I sure wouldn't.

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