As expected, now that Hendrickson's agent has found proof that teams will at least pay Hendrickson the contract but won't meet the Bengals' asking price, it's hard to say what happens next. The Bengals granted permission to seek the trade and now have to either pay up on the price the market agrees on, or dig in for more summer drama.

So that's where things stand -- the Bengals granted Hendrickson and his reps permission to seek a trade and they have apparently found that other teams, indeed, will pay him what he wants. That leaves the Cincinnati front office lacking leverage, other than to weather the storm of another possible holdout that stretches into the summer.