Some things never change.
For a brief moment, it seemed like the Cincinnati Bengals were flirting with a different organizational identity. At least that was the optimistic way to interpret early-offseason deals for Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. As it turns out, we should have known better.
Any hope that this notoriously frugal organization would finally start operating like a serious football team was short-lived. Owner/president Mike Brown, the 89-year-old son of team founder Paul Brown, wasted little time in returning to the franchise's usual way of doing business.
The first sign came just a few weeks after Chase and Higgins cashed in together: Trey Hendrickson, having put together back-to-back 17.5-sack seasons, was up for a new contract of his own. As the lone star on an otherwise barren defense, it was logical to assume he would be a priority for Cincinnati. The front office's actions indicate otherwise.
Contract negotiations can get complicated for any team - the Bengals aren't alone in that. But it shouldn't be difficult to give Hendrickson a deal in line with his well-established market value. The team also hasn't done itself any favors in allowing this to devolve into an uncomfortable standoff playing out through the media.
"I think he should be happy at certain rates that maybe he doesn't think he'd be happy at," executive vice president Katie Blackburn said at the NFL owners meetings in April. "I think some of it is on him to be happy at some point, and if he's not, you know, that's what holds it up sometimes."
Hendrickson was understandably disappointed by those remarks. He later made it clear that he wouldn't play for the Bengals under his current contract and shed some light on the contentious situation.
"I think over the last week or so, it's become personal, unfortunately," Hendrickson said while sitting out team workouts in May. "When there's a lack of communication in any relationship … (it) leads to animosity, and that leaves my narrative only to me with no clear direction."
Recent reporting suggests the two sides have resumed contract talks, leading to some renewed optimism about Hendrickson's future in Cincinnati. We'll see. We heard the same things in March before the relationship started to fall apart.
No strangers to fighting multiple fires at once, the Bengals are also in a standoff with first-round rookie Shemar Stewart. The Texas A&M product was a spectator at spring workouts due to a dispute over void language the team wants to include in his yet-to-be-signed contract.
"The Bengals are trying to set a new precedent in terms of their contract language, putting in ... default language that, if you mess up once, it voids the rest of your contract," NFL Network's Tom Pelissero said. "They have not historically had that language in their contracts. ... They're trying to put it in the contract now."
This isn't a completely new idea; other teams around the league include similar language as a form of protection. But what did the Bengals expect to happen when they decided that this would be the year they set a new standard? 2024 first-rounder Amarius Mims didn't have to accept such terms, so why would Stewart?
And Stewart's teammates, who are well aware of how these things work, appear to have his back.
"It's made it very easy when the people in here, in the locker room, say 'you're doing the right things,' especially the star players," Stewart said, according to The Athletic's Sarah Jean Maher.
Both of these situations could be resolved over the next few weeks. If Hendrickson and Stewart are on the field when training camp gets underway at the end of July, we'll all get to pretend it was much ado about nothing. But the painful journey to get there still sheds an unflattering light on this organization's priorities.
Spending big on both Chase and Higgins - a uniquely bold investment within a single position group - should have been the Bengals' first step in committing to do everything to win while quarterback Joe Burrow is in his prime. These contract squabbles, like so many other decisions from this front office over the years, run counter to that kind of commitment.
In Hendrickson's case, there shouldn't be much to figure out. A three-year deal worth something in the range of $90 million probably would have settled the matter months ago. If that number seems too big, just imagine how much worse this 25th-ranked defense would be without one of the league's most consistent edge rushers. There's no excuse for messing around - the Bengals have $31.9 million in cap space.
Stewart, drafted to give Hendrickson some help on the defensive line, is an exciting but raw prospect who already faced an uphill battle in terms of making an impact as a rookie. Not getting on the field until training camp at the earliest only makes that more difficult. If he's a nonfactor in Year 1, it's fair to wonder how this defense will be any better than the unit that held Cincinnati back last year.
The optics are generally pretty bad too. When was the last time an organization got put on blast by its first-round rookie?
"I'm not asking for nothing y'all (the team) has never done before," Stewart told reporters last week. "But in y'all (the team's) case, y'all (the team) just want to win arguments (more) than winning more games."
Stewart is exactly right about his new employer. We're incessantly reminded that the NFL is, first and foremost, a business. However, plenty of teams have navigated that reality while also doing what it takes to put themselves in the best possible position to win.
The Bengals have never been part of that club. We're still waiting to find out if they have any interest in joining.
Dan Wilkins is theScore's senior NFL writer.
