Cincinnati Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway reports the Bengals will gather information from other teams about Trey Hendrickson’s market at the NFL Combine.

17 February 2026

The Bengals have left open the option to trade Hendrickson through the franchise tag, but that seems like a really unrealistic scenario on paper. Hendrickson would, after being tagged back-to-back years, be guaranteed a $30.2 million salary in 2026. He could simply sign the tag and likely do better for himself than he would on the free market. This feels a lot like the Vikings trying to drum up a market for Sam Darnold in a tag-and-trade last year — if a team can’t afford to tag the player and simply keep him, it’s hard to believe that a trade will come to fruition.