Bengals not tagging Trey Hendrickson

[HungryLion]

Our secondary has no talent.
Our defensive line has some decent players.
So secondary is my primary concern.

Our DE position has almost no talent too. If we are being honest.

Who is signed at DE right now? EZE and James Houston.


Honestly the needs are dire at DE, LB, CB and S.

It’s why I’ve said before the cowboys realistically need 5-6 starting caliber pickups this offseason.

The need to sign at least 4 starting caliber free agents and then hit both first rounders on defenders.

 

[5Starter]

They've restructured enough money to do whatever they want to, they have the 12th and 20th overall picks and free agency starts next week.
We won't have long till we find out how serious they are.

 

[HungryLion]

Wow, we agree.

I’m not all negative all the time. I do get pissed at the cowboys sometimes though.

 

[DarkVader33]

You could provide an argument for why it isn’t. Or you could just call me a fool I suppose.

Don’t get me wrong. I think LB, S, and CB are all needs. I just see DE as the priority. We have a guy who just had hip surgery (and still needs to improve because while he was ok last year he wasn’t anything great).

Behind him we have literally scraps. We have nothing behind him right now. DE is a major need.

Our DE position has almost no talent too. If we are being honest.

Who is signed at DE right now? EZE and James Houston.


Honestly the needs are dire at DE, LB, CB and S.

It’s why I’ve said before the cowboys realistically need 5-6 starting caliber pickups this offseason.

The need to sign at least 4 starting caliber free agents and then hit both first rounders on defenders.

In a 3-4 alignment, aren’t the DE technically OLB? That would make our greatest need the LB position. What am I missing?

 

[john van brocklin]

One starting? de coming off a rookie season and surgery
One starting? LBer not himself
One starting cb? Not himself.
One starting s?
Defense is in big trouble

Yes , we need defensive players across the board.

 

[shabazz]

I’m not all negative all the time. I do get pissed at the cowboys sometimes though.

.....sometimes I get emotional about them. Sigh

 

[John813]

Do people still think the 3-4 is like Tuna's from 20 years ago?

3-4 4-3 is all about where who lines up. 0,1,3,4,5, etc

The base offense is a 3 WR set these days. We aren't going to trot out 7 DL and LB most snaps. It's going to be ~6 upfront with the remaining 5 being secondary. And in that secondary it could be 3 CBs and 2 S or 2 CB and 3 S/hybrid.

Now, how Parker wants to align the line when it becomes a nickel formation and how Hendrickson fits that, I'm not for sure. But we need edge rushers. Last year we had no consistent pressure off the edge.

 

[yentl911]

For the right price, he fits any defense. I want really good players. We can figure it out afterward.

This is exactly right! Get really good players

 

[thunderpimp91]

His career took off when he became a defensive end vs an outside linebacker.


It’s OK to disagree.

I'm just not sure that's accurate. Just because Cincinnati plays mostly even fronts from their base doesn't mean he wasn't used as a OLB.

In NO he played 1,543 defensive snaps....130 of them came as an OLB.
In CIN he played 3,475 defensive snaps....1,617 of them came as an OLB.

This is why I really downplay a lot of the 4-3 vs 3-4 talk. It really isn't that important as your 4-3 teams are using just as many 3-4 concepts as 3-4 teams and 3-4 teams are mostly 1 gapping to mimic the functionality of a 4-3. They're all hybrids in some form or fashion. I mean I still think half the fan base didn't realize the Cowboys were mostly a 3-4 team in 2026.

IMO the important pieces to pay attention to for your front are gap responsibilities and the attack style of that defense.

 

[HungryLion]

In a 3-4 alignment, aren’t the DE technically OLB? That would make our greatest need the LB position. What am I missing?

I’m using the term interchangeably. It’s the edge.

 

[Rayman70]

Sign him to a team friendly short deal. 2 or 3 years.

 

[Q_the_man]

Sure, but what does that have to do with fitting within a scheme?

Hendrickson will be either LOLB or ROLB same as Ware, Greg Ellis. Hendrickson is better than any FA or anyone of our LBs that can play within the scheme.

Scheme needs talent. The Clippers can run the triangle offense but without Jordan and Kobe instead you have Odom and Paul, it won't work.

 

[DandyDon52]

Would be nice if Parker would speak about him and crosby.
It will be up to him, and what he thinks about the players.
If he really likes the guy then Jones boys could try and get him.

There may be a guy or 2 in the draft that parker would rather have??

Not knowing what parker is thinking, makes it hard to say about any Def FA, and we should go get them.
What fans or jones boys think is not important, it is shotty and parker and Clayton who will decide what players they want to try and get. We dont know who they like in the draft, or if they value these FA guys like Crosby and Trey.

 

[boysfanindc]

Would be nice if Parker would speak about him and crosby.
It will be up to him, and what he thinks about the players.
If he really likes the guy then Jones boys could try and get him.

There may be a guy or 2 in the draft that parker would rather have??

Not knowing what parker is thinking, makes it hard to say about any Def FA, and we should go get them.
What fans or jones boys think is not important, it is shotty and parker and Clayton who will decide what players they want to try and get. We dont know who they like in the draft, or if they value these FA guys like Crosby and Trey.

Crosby is not a free agent and would require significant draft capital to get him. I think you can take Crosby off the table.

 

[Bigrandrn]

We need LBs and secondary help more than DEs

We have nothing at DE really. EZ is proven and coming off surgery…nothing else. -*** Rush helps the secondary

Exactly. Sign Hendrickson

And to sweeten the pie.

Trade #12 for Cosby and #36 pick. Man, our front 5 would be awesome. We get these 2 plus a few lower tier FAs that Parker likes and still have a 1st and 2nd. We would be setup for a nice 3 year run.

i dont think raiders would give up Maxx and their second just for 12.