After 5 years in Cincinnati, S Jessie Bates III is expected to hit free agency after the Bengals and him couldn’t come close to a deal.
CINCINNATI, Ohio– The Bengals team that made it to the Super Bowl a mere two years ago is falling apart. While Cincinnati isn’t in a world of cap hell, not facing the NFL underworld when it comes to new contracts, chances are they’re going to have to slash some players, and the mass exodus has already hit the defensive side.
According to a report by theScore reporter Jordan Schultz, all-pro safety Jessie Bates III is all but likely to sign with another team. Earlier this week, Bates said that he’d want, “a contract that blows people away.”
The Bengals obviously were reluctant to give it to him. Jessie Bates has been a bright spot of a Bengals defense that has had some star figures over the past couple of months. A bastion of the secondary since 2018, the Bengals chose to exercise his fifth-year option two years ago. It was a guarantee that Bates would ask for a large lump sum of cash after earning All-Pro honors in 2020 but an outdated rule by the NFL bars Cincinnati from offering guaranteed money that the franchise can’t pay up front.
The team has seen large amounts of turnover because of the team’s inability to place large guaranteed contracts in escrow. Bates will just be another victim.
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In 2022, Bates played 16 games and finished with 71 total tackles, four tackles, and a forced fumble. The team franchise tagged Bates prior to the 2022 season, and although Cincinnati does sit amid the top of the league in terms of cap space, holding $35.66 million, the team seems reluctant to give Bates the long-term and high-value contract he’s been looking for.
Bates has been exceptional in safety play, and the team seems willing to bring him back. “We want [him] back,” director of player personnel Tobin said to The Athletic. “It’ll be dependent on how much [he’s] offered from other teams, if [he’s] offered from other teams, and how much we have in the resources to bring [him] back.”
The Bengals drafted Dax Hill in the 2022 NFL Draft from the University of Michigan to be Bates’ supposed successor, but the Queen City’s defense will take a huge hit as is. The Bengals paid out $12.91 million to Bates in ’22, a number that is all but set to go up when teams offer Bates in free agency.
The Bengals have been rumored to have some other players on the chopping block as an attempt to save some monetary space. WR3 Tee Higgins has been a trade target for multiple teams across the league. The safety opposite to Bates, Vonn Bell is on the transaction ledger along with linebacker Germaine Pratt.
The Bengals finished the 2022 season with a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round of the playoffs and will seek to make the playoffs for a third consecutive year in 2023.
