The Bengals are forced to fine their star pass rusher for not showing up.
The Cincinnati Bengals and Trey Hendrickson are officially going to be staring down a training camp holdout as the starter pass rusher waits for a deal he deems acceptable.
The thing is, the Bengals will now be forced to fine Hendrickson for each day he doesn’t show up because of the NFL CBA.
Each day Hendrickson is out, he will have to pay $50,000. For each game he misses, it’s a $877,777 fine, according to Spotrac. When the owners and players last negotiated the CBA, the owners added a clause requiring teams to pay fines for players who fail to show up.
Previously, teams could waive these fines upon the player signing the deal.
This is why hold-ins — like what we saw with Ja’Marr Chase last offseason — have become more of the norm among players waiting for a new deal from their current team.
We will see if this will at least get Hendrickson in the building, but with the money he should be earning, he may just spend it. He is currently only under contract this season for $16 million despite leading the league in sacks last year and a booming pass rusher contract market.
#Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson has officially begun his holdout as training camp gets under way.
Cincinnati is required to fine the 30-year-old $50,000 per camp day missed. Any preseason or regular season game missed will result in $877,777 of salary lost.
— Spotrac (@spotrac) July 22, 2025
