
Bengals star defensive end Trey Hendrickson is set to undergo core muscle surgery this week and is expected to miss the rest of the 2025 season.
League sources confirmed the news on Monday. Adam Schefter was the first to report that Hendrickson will undergo surgery.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor ruled out Hendrickson for Sunday's game against the Ravens already and shared that the All-Pro was set to visit with a specialist.
That specialist is Dr. William Meyers in Philadelphia's Vincera Institute according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Hendrickson is in the final year of his contract and set to become a free agent in March. He requested a trade in the offseason, before ultimately working out a revamped one-year deal with the Bengals. Cincinnati gave him a $13 million raise, which got him back on the field ahead of the start of the season.
The Bengals could try to sign him to an extension this offseason or use the franchise tag on him. The tag wasn't a concern for Hendrickson when he agreed to the re-worked contract.
"With the salaries going up and the tag also will be going up, so it's not something that I'm concerned about," Hendrickson said in August. "I have to focus on what the 2025 Bengals means to me. And I want to be a part of something special here. I'm vocalize that pretty early and often again I can't write my own contracts. I think we'd all, as players, love to do that. There wasn't one that I saw long-term that I would have considered. So again this compromise comes with a great amount of respect for me towards them. I'm incredibly honored and appreciative that I can play football at this level this week."
It's reasonable to think Hendrickson has played his last down in Cincinnati.
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