Joe Burrow: Trey Hendrickson deserves to get paid

Joe Burrow shared some of his thoughts on the situation between the Bengals and the NFL’s leading sack leader.

All eyes are on the Cincinnati Bengals and Trey Hendrickson as the NFL’s defending sack leader continues his very public holdout from OTAs.

On Tuesday, superstar quarterback Joe Burrow gave his rare take on the situation.

“We’ll see what happens with that,” Burrow told reporters. “You guys all know how I feel bout Trey. He’s a great player. I love Trey as a guy. He goes out and plays well every single Sunday. He’s very productive. He’s a guy that deserves to get paid and get paid what he wants and what the market is.”

Hendrickson has racked up 57 sacks in his four years on the Bengals’ roster and had his best two years in 2023 and 2024, in which he had 17.5 sacks each. Despite the lack of the defense’s overall ability to get to the quarterback, Hendrickson consistently provided pressure and acted as a one-man wrecking crew.

He’s also the 14th highest-paid edge rusher in the league coming into 2025, per Spotrac, and outperformed every one of them in the season in which he turned 30.

The Bengals have reportedly offered Hendrickson a contract that would pay him $28 million per year, and it’s currently unclear how far apart the team and its best defensive player still are.

Burrow made it clear through his past interactions with the press that he expects the Bengals to do what they need to do to keep Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Hendrickson in Cincinnati.

Maybe saying Hendrickson deserves what he’s asking for is his way of pushing the front office to get a deal done so the entire team can get to work.