Lack of Trey Hendrickson injury updates create questions for Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson remains a question mark to return at all this season.
How Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and the team handled Hendrickson’s injury saga, though, continues to raise eyebrows and produce more questions than answers.
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Taylor, after all, started this week before the game against the Buffalo Bills much like many weeks prior: He quickly declared Hendrickson as “doubtful” on Monday, going with the “week-to-week” phrase yet again.
Big deal…or business as usual?
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Footage from WCPO’s Caleb Noe has to buzz on social media:
Hendrickson hasn’t played since October 26, yet the Bengals didn’t put him on injured reserve. At the time, the logic might’ve been simple: There was an outside chance or feeling that he could make it back before missing the mandatory four games that going on injured reserve requires.
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Fast forward to now, the Bengals have missed the proverbial boat when it comes to putting Hendrickson on injured reserve. Doing so now would effectively end his season.
Of course, this could be as innocent as can be. Hendrickson has a nagging injury that he pushed to come back from and reaggravated it.
Hendrickson, though, will always get more scrutiny than other injured players after multiple offseasons of contract drama with the team. He’s scheduled to be a free agent after the season and is very much a franchise tag candidate, too.
The Bengals are right in the middle of a long-shot playoff push with Joe Burrow back, too, so this Hendrickson saga has earned far more attention than it might otherwise. Getting an All-Pro pass-rusher back would be a big help, to say the least.
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For at least this week, though, the Bengals will have to beat the Bills to stay alive, then turn eyes to that typical Monday Taylor press conference and see if anything has changed.
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This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Lack of Trey Hendrickson injury updates create questions for Bengals