Trey Hendrickson was the third of three third-round picks for the New Orleans Saints in an extremely talented 2017 draft. CB Marshal Lattimore and RT Ryan Ramczyk were selected in the first round, followed by S Marcus Williams in the second, RB Alvin Kamara, LB Alex Anzalone, and DE Hendrickson in the third, and DE Al-Quadin Muhammad in the sixth.
Lattimore, Kamara, and Ramczyk are among the league’s best at their positions. Williams (five years) and Anzalone (four) both had several productive seasons with the Saints before moving on to star with other teams. Even Muhammad, cut after one year with New Orleans, went on to have a solid career with the Colts and Bears. It has been Hendrickson’s departure that has drawn ire from New Orleans fans. Hendrickson was perhaps the most unheralded of all those draft choices coming into 2017. Pick Number 103 overall, he was overlooked by most analysts despite 28 sacks and 39 tackles for loss in his last three collegiate seasons with Florida Atlantic
Hendrickson was a solid complementary defender for the Saints in his first three seasons. During his first three years, he appeared in 33 games, starting three of them. While Hendrickson was a valuable contributor, no one could predict what he had in store for them next. Hendrickson had 13.5 sacks, 25 QB hits, 33 pressures, and 12 tackles for loss for the Saints in 2020. In all four categories, he led New Orleans. His statistical output also dwarfed his first three seasons combined.
Fortunately for Hendrickson, but unluckily for the Saints, his outburst occurred during a contract year. During the 2021 offseason, the Cincinnati Bengals swooped in and signed Hendrickson to a four-year contract worth $60 million, including a $10 million signing bonus and $16 million in guaranteed money. Hendrickson has 35 sacks, 71 QB hits, and 30 tackles for loss in 46 games, including the postseason, since joining the Bengals. He’s a key member of Cincinnati’s young and disruptive defensive line, which has won two straight NFC North titles and one AFC championship.
The Saints have been a master at manipulating their salary cap. However, their decision to avoid trying to re-sign Hendrickson to a big contract also made some sense for a few reasons. 1. Future Hall of Fame DE Cam Jordan was still playing at a high level at the time. Jordan has been one of the NFL’s most consistently productive defensive ends and showed little signs of slowing down. The Saints had also just re-signed Jordan to a multi-year deal the previous offseason. 2. Additionally, the team still believed that they had a potential star in DE Marcus Davenport, a 2018 first-round draft choice. While often injured, Davenport was still disruptive when he did play. To be fair, Davenport had nine sacks, 16 QB hits, and nine tackles for loss in 2021, the year after Hendrickson left. It didn’t match up to Hendrickson’s production in his first year with Cincinnati (14 sacks, 27 QB hits, 3 forced fumbles), but showed that Davenport might live up to expectations after all. 3. Perhaps the Saints thought that Hendrickson was a ”one-year wonder” and that a big deal was too much of a gamble. After all, he wasn’t even a regular starter in any of his first three seasons. Over those three years, Hendrickson had a combined 7.5 sacks, 20 QB hits, and nine tackles for loss. Signing Hendrickson to a multi-year contract would have been a gamble. Instead, the Saints gambled by letting him depart and rolling with the options on the roster. They lost their gamble.
Davenport’s 2021 season turned out to be an aberration. He was again an injury-prone and ineffective player in 2022 before departing in free agency after the season. While not necessarily accurate, some fans view Davenport as one of the biggest busts in franchise history. New Orleans spent their 2021 first-round draft choice on DE Payton Turner. As with Davenport, Turner has spent as much time on the injured list as he has the field. Turner has played in only 14 of a possible 44 games with New Orleans and has been on injured reserve since Week 2. He’s flashed some solid potential with three sacks and eight tackles for loss, but simply hasn’t been reliable. The Saints used a second-round choice in last spring’s draft on DE Isaiah Foskey. He’s come on stronger recently, but Foskey got off to an extremely slow start and has averaged less than nine defensive snaps through his eight games played. Jordan is still a fine player. However, he is no longer playing at an elite level and seems to have lost a step. After a spectacular 2021 campaign, he slipped to 8.5 sacks and 17 pressures last season. This year, Jordan has only two sacks and six QB hits for a pass rush that has been largely nonexistent. Fifth-year DE Carl Granderson is having a breakout year. Granderson has already equalled his career best with a team-high 5.5 sacks. He also leads the team with 14 QB hits and 10 tackles for loss. The Saints were wise is locking up Granderson with a contract extension at the beginning of the year. New Orleans defensive ends have combined for eight sacks, 25 QB hits, 41 pressures, and 13 tackles for loss in 10 games this season. Trey Hendrickson has 9.5 sacks, 14 QB hits, 21 pressures, and 10 tackles by himself in 2023. It’s a bit of a stretch to say that letting Hendrickson leave was one of the biggest blunders in New Orleans franchise history. Their reasons for doing so made some sense at the time. It’s also just as clear that having Hendrickson in a Saints uniform now would certainly bolster an invisible pass rush and a fading defense.
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