Hendrickson signs with Ravens after Crosby deal fell through. Is he worth $112 million?

The Baltimore Ravens didn’t take long to switch gears after their trade with the Las Vegas Raiders for Maxx Crosby fell through.

They quickly turned their attention to Trey Hendrickson, giving the veteran a four-year, $112 million deal, including $60 million fully guaranteed.

Committing such a large amount of money to the 31-year-old may raise eyebrows, and naturally raises the question: exactly how good is he?

With Hendrickson now set to face his former Cincinnati Bengals teammates twice a year, we break down his career numbers in an attempt to answer that question.

If we judge by sacks alone

Sacks tend to dominate the conversation when evaluating pass rushers, and from that perspective, Hendrickson has consistently ranked among the very best in the league.

He spent much of 2025 injured, but if we rewind to 2024, Hendrickson ranked first among all edge rushers in total sacks.

Impressive though that feat is, sack numbers only tell part of the story. And when considering how Hendrickson or any edge rusher compares to their peers, the wider context is important.

We'll step through the other key factors that matter here.

Pass rush snaps matter

Superior edge rushers will typically be given more snaps than others if they are better at their job, but it's not as simple as that.

Some defensive coordinators prefer to employ an edge rotation, regardless of the talent at their disposal. Lou Anarumo, the Indianapolis Colts' defensive coordinator in 2025, was a prime example.

In 2024, when Hendrickson led the league in sacks, he finished fifth among all edge rushers in pass-rush snaps.

Aside from huge disparities in talent, health is perhaps the biggest differentiator in determining snap volume. To state the obvious, no player is going to rank among the league's best in any category unless they're on the field.

To that point, it should be noted that Hendrickson didn't miss a single game in 2024.

Game scripts can also dictate how often a team faces the pass vs. the run, and therefore how many opportunities an edge defender has to rush the passer.David Berding / Stringer

Inferior teams, who often trail in games, will naturally face the run more often, especially late in games, as their opponent attempts to run down the clock.

Therefore, edge defenders who play for teams playing from behind will sometimes rush the passer less often than some of their peers.

That said, the latter point seems to matter less than other factors, as the Bengals finished 9-8 in 2024, while Myles Garrett still placed second that year despite the Browns' 3-14 record.

The importance of pressures

Sack numbers fluctuate from season to season. There is no better example of this than Maxx Crosby in 2021, when he was consistently disruptive and yet finished with only eight sacks.

What Crosby led the league in that year, and which foretold the success he was to have each year thereafter, is the amount of pressure he generated - a league-leading 101.

Pressures include sacks, hits and hurries, and they give a broader view of how often a pass rusher affects a play.

When quarterbacks face pressure, their efficiency drops sharply, with passer rating typically falling dramatically compared to throwing from a clean pocket.

In 2024, Hendrickson was in elite company in this category, ranking fifth after producing pressure on 16.1% of his pass rush attempts.

The quality of opponents

While pressures are a better indicator of a player's impact than sacks alone, we cannot rely solely on pressures to evaluate pass rushers because they don't account for the opponent.

Some quarterbacks are better at escaping or getting the ball out quickly, while others tend to hold the ball and allow pressures to turn into sacks.

Those factors can inflate sack and pressure totals for defenders facing certain teams.

To illustrate that point, consider that Giants' QB Jaxson Dart was responsible for 39.1% of the pressures he faced last year, compared to the Rams' Matthew Stafford, whose figure of 8.9% was markedly superior.

Likewise, some offensive lines are inferior to others in pass blocking, and together with the quarterback point above, can lead to inflated sack and pressure totals for defenders facing certain teams.

With that said, in 2024, Hendrickson performed well against some of the best offensive tackles in football.

Body of work

When evaluating how good a player is now, the most recent production matters most, but how they've performed in other years should also be considered.

From that perspective, and considering Hendrickson missed 10 games last year, he still measures up to his peers well over the last three years.

With 81 sacks in only 117 career games, Hendrickson has consistently proven he ranks among the league's elite pass rushers.

Ability against the run

Hendrickson, while clearly a superior pass rusher, is not renowned for his ability in run defense.

Per PFF, in 2024, he ranked 50th out of 130 edge defenders in that regard, and this shows up when you watch his tape.

This point is nothing new. It's who Hendrickson has been his entire career.

His career tackle production, averaging only 27 combined tackles per season, reinforces the notion that Hendrickson is more of a pass-rushing force than an all-around contributor.

Conclusion

Hendrickson isn't a do-it-all defender in the mould of Myles Garrett or Micah Parsons, but the numbers show he remains one of the league’s top-five edge rushers.

In an increasingly pass-centric NFL, it makes sense that his talents were in high demand.

Yes, he’s on the wrong side of 30, but given his career production, the Ravens didn’t overpay - they simply met the market price for a player capable of turning their Super Bowl ambitions into reality.

Now in Baltimore, Hendrickson will pair with second-year edge rusher Mike Green and aim to justify the Ravens’ investment.