We’ve seen contract updates coming from reporters. We’ve seen it coming from the Head Coach or the player himself. The front office, even. But to get an update from a teammate? That’s new. And that’s exactly what we got from Joe Borrow in a recent interview. He talked about the Trey Hendrickson contract saga, and he might’ve given a more valuable update than any reporter has since the saga started.

To put it lightly, he asked everyone to calm down. “I think historically these deals with us have gotten done closer to Week 1. I signed the Thursday before the first game… historically the way we have done business that tends to pick up here in the next two weeks, so, we’ll see,” he said. Exactly. Wait until September before jumping to conclusions. That’s the prime time for these deals to be done.

And Joe Burrow knows that. His own megadeal landed right as a season kicked off. He put pen to paper on a five-year, $275 million extension with the Bengals in early September 2023, basically on the doorstep of Week 1.

Why wait that long to finalize the talks? Because the clock squeezes leverage. As Joe pointed out, once Week 1 inches closer, urgency skyrockets on both sides. And of course, a team can’t risk a star rusher sitting when the games count, and the player won’t want to burn his best market window.

There’s precedent for teams (Bengals included), hammering out deals late in camp: Burrow’s September 2023 signature is the exact template he pointed to. But not every case runs that clock. Let’s stick with the Bengals only. They locked in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins much earlier on the 2025 calendar. But taking Hendrickson’s demands into account, it’s best that they wait a little longer.

They need him on the pitch. Let’s get that clear. He went off in 2024, leading the league with 17.5 sacks. He flat-out changes how teams draw up protections. Take him away, or let him sit, and you’re staring at a defensive gap no spreadsheet can spin as “manageable.” It gets worse when you realize that it’s just one issue that is keeping the contract talks on hold.

What’s holding the Hendrickson deal up?

Before Monday night’s matchup with Washington, Hendrickson told ESPN there’s really only one snag. He and the Bengals are aligned on years and AAV, but the hang-up is over guaranteed money. Yeah, he wants more than the Bengals are willing to commit. That’s pretty much it.

It’d be unfair not to look at this whole saga from Hendrickson’s perspective. At 30, he’s still one of the league’s premier pass rushers, and he’s been watching Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt, Maxx Crosby and others cash monster deals over the past few months. It’s fair that he’s not settling for less.

And for the Bengals, it creates a cap issue. His 2025 cap hit under the current deal lands in the high teens: $18.67 million. This is serious cap space when the Bengals are also juggling Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and the mechanics of Burrow’s deal. The standoff’s gone far enough that Cincinnati let Hendrickson shop himself, only to turn away offers once they rolled in.

Reports say Trey Hendrickson might even be ready to sit, which cranks up the pressure. The Bengals now have to choose between paying for security or cashing him in for picks while the market’s hot. Either move reshapes the front-seven plan. Week 1 isn’t too far now. They need to figure this out.