NFL free agency preview: Trey Hendrickson to sign biggest contract ever by FAU player

Free agency begins March 17. Who are the best players available? And will the Dolphins make a play for them? We explore in this series of player profiles ahead of the league new year.

Trey Hendrickson

2020 team: New Orleans Saints.

Position: Edge defender.

ESPN free agent ranking: 12.

2020 stats: Fifteen games (all starts), 13 1/2 sacks, 25 tackles (12 for loss), 25 quarterback hits, 33 pressures, 72.1 Pro Football Focus grade.

2020 salary: $825,000.

Market value (per Spotrac): Three years, $31 million.

Player summary: Hendrickson should be part of all football recruiting literature in Boca Raton. He’s proof that mid-pack the Conference USA program can produce bona fide NFL stars. After winning C-USA defensive player of the year honors in 2016, Hendrickson was drafted in the third round and had a relatively quiet first three pro seasons before exploding in his contract year. The perennially cap-strapped Saints certainly cannot afford to tag him and probably cannot afford to re-sign him. Hendrickson’s new deal will almost certainly make him the highest-paid FAU player in NFL history.

Likelihood he joins the Dolphins: Low. Double-digit sack artists are never cheap, and the Dolphins simply do not have the resources, short of major cap finagling, to afford Hendrickson. Plus, the Dolphins’ pass rush was much improved in 2020, ranking 13th in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus. And they did it more with scheme than elite personnel. There’s no reason to think that will change in 2021, considering their top seven pass rushers (Emmanuel Ogbah, Jerome Baker, Kyle Van Noy, Andrew Van Ginkel, Shaq Lawson, Zach Sieler and Christian Wilkins) are all under contract..

Quotable: “Certainly we want him back. ... He’s going to be an attractive free agent for anyone,” — New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis on Trey Hendrickson.

This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 11:17 AM.

Adam H. Beasley

Miami Herald

305-376-2387

Adam Beasley has covered the Dolphins for the Miami Herald since 2012, and has worked for the newspaper since 2006. He is a graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communications and has written about sports professionally since 1996. Support my work with a digital subscription