Trey Hendrickson may have reported back to Cincinnati’s training camp, turning his holdout into a hold-in, but he is still demanding a new contract that compensates him properly. And as the reigning NFL sack leader, he’s earned a lot more compensation than his last deal offered. Hopefully, he and the Bengals can find common ground and agree on terms that help both sides get what they want because the defense sorely needs him if they’re going to have a chance of improving from 2024’s embarrassing output.
Hendrickson excels with multiple pass rush moves, but there’s one in particular that he’s proven to be among the NFL’s best at, and that’s the inside rush. John Kosko, an NFL analyst for Pro Football Focus, looked at all of PFF’s grading data to find the highest-graded pass rushers by pass rush move in 2024, and Trey Hendrickson landed at No. 9 for the inside move.
The inside move can be devastating to an offensive line, more so than most pass rush moves. As Kosko explains, “While pass rushers don’t utilize inside moves as often as outside moves, a deadly inside move is the quickest path to the quarterback.” Hendrickson earned a 92.5 PFF grade on inside moves, winning on 46.77% of these snaps and getting pressure on the quarterback 41.94% of the time.
It wasn’t just the inside move where Hendrickson graded highly, either. Kosko included a catch-all “No Move Attempted” category, which accounts for things like “working through a chip block, clean-up, switch or some other form of help blocking that may muddy the waters due to things like miscommunication and split leverage”. In these situations, Hendrickson in 2024 graded out at a 66.2, good for 5th best in the NFL.
If Cincinnati can make Hendrickson happy and get him back on the field for 2025, he’ll get to line up with Shemar Stewart, who finally signed his rookie deal. This could be a potentially lethal pass rush duo that changes the game for the Bengals. If their defensive line can keep opposing quarterbacks on the run, the offense, which should be led by an even more dominant Joe Burrow in 2025, should have no problems scoring enough points to win.