Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Just a quick programming note: Tyler Lauletta will fill in for me tomorrow while I’m on a quick reporting trip.
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In today’s SI:AM:
🐴 Pat Surtain II profile
🏈 CFB Week 1’s best games
🤠 Why Jerry won’t deal Parsons
New contracts for two notable players
Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson and Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin will be on the field when their teams open the season in Week 1 after reaching agreements on new contracts to end their standoffs.
Hendrickson and McLaurin were two of the most notable players hoping to secure new deals this summer (along with Cowboys pass rusher Micah Parsons, whose situation remains unresolved). Both players had requested trades and did not participate in training camp practices or preseason games, and Hendrickson had reportedly been willing to go as far as to sit out the 2025 season. Both players were able to resolve their disputes just before the regular season, though.
Hendrickson’s deal is rather straightforward. He had been set to make $16 million this season but will receive a $14 million raise, bringing his base salary to $30 million. He can also earn an additional $1 million if he plays 60% of Cincinnati’s defensive snaps and the team makes the playoffs. He will still be a free agent at the end of the season.
It’s a compromise between Hendrickson, who had been seeking a multi-year contract extension, and the Bengals, who certainly would have rather had him play out the season on the contract he had previously signed. Cincinnati had discussed a two-year, $79 million extension with Hendrickson, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported, but that deal did not include any guaranteed money past 2025, and so Hendrickson opted for the one-year raise before testing the free-agent market next spring.
“We’re taking one day at a time,” Hendrickson told the team website. “Moving forward, we’ll figure that out as it goes. For this season, to be given a raise I didn’t necessarily have to have been given, it’s a blessing to be in a position where I’ve been brought up to my peers. And also being able to get after quarterbacks.
“I love this city and with what’s been happening the last couple of months, I’ve had time to reflect on what it means to me and how much I want to stay a Bengal for the 2025 season.”
McLaurin also skipped training camp while seeking a raise from the $19.65 million he had been set to make this season in the final year of the three-year extension he signed in 2022. His new deal is a three-year contract worth up to $96 million. It also includes a $30 million signing bonus.
Beyond that, details on the contract are scarce. We all know that the headline dollar amounts of NFL contracts are inflated at best, and totally fake at worst. Teams and agents use tactics like unattainable incentives to inflate the maximum value of the contract, allowing the agent to boast about the value of the deal he negotiated and the team to look like they’re rewarding the player with a big payday. In McLaurin’s case, though, we still don’t know how much money he’ll actually make. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported that the details of McLaurin’s contract have been “very elusive.” McLaurin had reportedly been seeking a deal that would pay him something similar to the $33 million annually that DK Metcalf got earlier this offseason. Without knowing more about the particulars of McLaurin’s deal, it’s tough to know how close he got to matching Metcalf.
The most important thing about McLaurin’s contract, though, is that it got done. He has been one of the most reliable receivers in the NFL since he entered the league in 2019 as a third-round pick out of Ohio State. He’s only missed three games during his six-year NFL career and has played every game since 2021. He had 919 receiving yards as a rookie and has surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in each of the subsequent five seasons. Only McLaurin, Metcalf, Mike Evans and Davante Adams have had at least 900 receiving yards in every season since 2019.
McLaurin’s dependability was key to quarterback Jayden Daniels’s success as a rookie last season. Losing McLaurin would have been a blow to the young quarterback’s development and Washington’s hopes of a return trip to the playoffs. With McLaurin’s situation resolved, the Commanders can enter the season at full strength.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Pat Surtain II, the Broncos’ star and reigning Defensive Player of the Year, shares with Mitch Goldich how growing up around the NFL and learning from his All-Pro dad shaped his journey and Denver’s resurgence.
- Micah Parsons and the Cowboys remain in limbo as the regular season approaches, but Gilberto Manzano doesn’t believe Jerry Jones will end up trading his star edge rusher.
- Albert Breer spoke with several of the most important members of the 49ers about why the team’s Super Bowl window could be reopening.
- Albert Breer also checks in on the Giants during his tour of NFL training camps, and here’s what he found out.
- Pat Forde previews a loaded Week 1 slate with three top-10 clashes, Bill Belichick’s college coaching debut and a full Labor Day weekend of action to kick off 2025.
- Some coordinator hires made by head coaches are intended to help with job security. Others are to replace a departed rock star. Pat Forde assesses the offseason's major changes.
- Bryan Fischer breaks down 16 definitive truths about the 2025 college football season, from Arch Manning falling short of the hype to Boise State’s Group of 5 dominance and Nebraska’s return to the rankings.
The top five…
… plays in baseball last night:
5. A nice diving catch by Rays center fielder Jake Mangum.
4. Cal Raleigh’s 50th homer of the season, a towering shot to deep left.
3. Alec Burleson’s walk-off homer for the Cardinals on a pitch well below the zone.
2. Reds pitcher Hunter Greene’s slick behind-the-back play on a grounder back to the mound.
1. An outstanding diving play at shortstop by Mookie Betts that he made look too easy.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | What to Know About Trey Hendrickson and Terry McLaurin’s New Deals.
