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The Cincinnati Bengals got crafty with their big deal for free agent Trey Hendrickson.
Cincinnati, in response to losing Carl Lawson, seemed to throw major money at the first fallback plan possible, giving Hendrickson four years and $60 million.
But the structure is interesting. According to MMQB’s Albert Breer, Hendrickson gets $10 million to sign, $20 million in 2021. He’ll get $32 million over two years.
Most important? The actual cap hit this season is just $12.5 million — and nothing is guaranteed after 2021.
Hendrickson was a risk of a signing because while his numbers were elite last year, it was one-hit-wonder stuff. If he doesn’t work out, the Bengals can cut him loose and he becomes nothing more than a stop-gap signing.
Meaning, the Bengals played it smart here, though the ’21 cap hit could have probably been even lower. Lawson, on the other hand, took a massive amount of guaranteed money in New York.
The fallout? The Bengals have roughly $30 million in cap space left and can still create more with certain cuts and/or trades.
For those curious, we graded Cincinnati’s signing of Hendrickson in-depth.
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