The deadline for franchise players to sign multiyear contracts is less than a week away, and it doesn’t sound like a resolution is coming between the Bengals and safety Jessie Bates. According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo (and passed along by Grant Gordon of NFL.com), a positive outcome between the two sides “appears bleak at the moment.”
Garafolo can’t envision Bates attending Bengals training camp without a new deal. The safety was also absent during OTAs as the two sides tried to hammer out a deal, but back in May, we heard that negotiations had stalled. Bates was slapped with the franchise tag earlier this offseason, locking him in to a $12.9MM salary for the 2022 campaign. However, the safety made it clear that he has no intention of playing the upcoming season under the franchise tag as he pursues a long-term, top-of-market deal.
As Joel Corry of CBS Sports writes, there’s a good chance that the Bengals are citing Marcus Williams‘ $14MM AAV that he got from the Ravens via a five-year deal this offseason. However, Bates’ camp is likely pursuing a deal closer to Jamal Adams‘ contract with the Seahawks, which averages $17.5MM per year and could be worth up to $18MM per year. There’s also Minkah Fitzpatrick‘s deal with the Steelers that exceeded that $18MM AAV mark but is only half guaranteed. Garafolo opines that the Bengals will be unwilling to pay that much for their safety, meaning there’s at least a $4MM or $5MM annual difference in opinions.
The 25-year-old was the subject of contract talks last offseason, but negotiations stalled. Bates had established himself as an integral part of the Bengals’ defense to that point, earning second-team All-Pro honors in 2020. The regular season this past year was his worst statistically, though he notched a pair of interceptions during the team’s run to the Super Bowl.
No way he is gonna get Adams or Fitz’s money. He has never been to the pro bowl and I know that’s something of a popularity contest but it’s a factor.
Of far greater import than pro bowl appearances is the down season he recently established. He played well to begin his career and peaked in 2020, but last season was certainly a disappointment. That, combined with the low demand for safeties, surely isn’t helping him.
If I were him at this point, I would play out the year on a franchise tag and attempt to return to 2020 form in hopes of a big deal.
I believe Fitzpatrick and Adams secured deals if such magnitude primarily due to the distinctive roles they play in their respective defenses; such players are more difficult to find on the open market (although I seriously questioned and still question the Adams contract)
Pro Bowl selections are a joke and both sides know it. I’m not saying its not one of many many bullet points for either side in initial negotiations, but no, I can’t believe it’s actually a serious factor.
Bates is a very good safety and very young. Someone will pay him Top 5 safety money when he hits the market. But if he’s looking to match or exceed Adams or Minkah’s deal with the notoriously cheap Mike Brown footing the bill…good luck.
Yeah it’s Mike Brown being cheap, not the Bengals conserving $$ for Burrow’s extension next year. Sheesh, how’s that 1995 take working out?
You can’t overpay everyone 3 million over market value. You pay Bates, then Vonn Bell wants more, then Pratt wants more, then Awusie wants more. They drafted his replacement. You need to keep Burrow, Higgins and Chase and if you’re giving Bates a 75 million dollar contract, that’s gonna be hard. Right now they can afford Bates but not in 2 years
Ah yes, they’ve definitely spent competitively to keep their top players and bring in top free agents in recent years. That’s definitely what everyone says about the Bengals.
For the most part, the Bengals have always kept their top players unless they drafted their replacements. Whitworth comes to mind. They drafted 2 offensive lineman very high in the draft as his replacement. They let Ogunjobi get away but he was injured and they signed Hill. Brown gets the reputation as cheap in salary but if you looked in the past, team salary is middle of the pack to lower 3rd. He’s definitely cheap in FO and scouting though
You named one top player and it was one they didn’t pay to keep and who went on to excel while his cheap replacements fell on their faces.
Was a 1st round draft pick. I don’t remember which was which but they drafted Ogbuehi and Fischer. The only other one I can remember is Max Montoya. Honestly, the Bengals show great loyalty to their players. The only ones that they got rid of were disgruntled guys. Nobody I can think of that wanted to stay and the team said no. Nobody good anyway
Those guys are largely disgruntled because they aren’t being offered competitive contracts to stay.
Not really. Dillon and Palmer were the ones I had in mind. Had nothing to do with money. If you have any examples of good players that wanted to stay in Cincinnati but weren’t offered a contract, I’d be glad to hear about them.
Palmer has said part of why he wanted out was frustration with their lack of spending around him. And they’ve lost numerous free agents–as recent as Lawson–because they wouldn’t come near the guarantees other teams offered. How many players have they kept or signed as free agents at near top of the market money? They’ve kept lower rung guys like Boyd or in their bigger expenditures signed second tier guys like Hendrickson, but they simply don’t pay in the upper echelons.
They let Lawson walk as he was often injured and replaced him with Hendrickson at basically the same price.
Hendrickson got half the guarantees spread out over twice as long. That’s not basically the same price when it comes to actual spending.
How’s that working out for the Jets?
The injury’s a rough break. That doesn’t change the Bengals’ pattern of not paying for premium players and their related pattern of not competing at the highest level. Higgins is going to want a contract after next year, and we’ll start to see if they’re willing and able to shell out to compete.
Lawson was good when healthy, but I wouldn’t have ever classified him as a “premium player”.
That’s fine, but they basically haven’t given out *any* top of the market contracts and their overall cash spending is consistently in the lower ranks. Maybe they change that for Higgins, Burrow, and Chase, but you can’t give them credit for theoretical spending they haven’t actually done.
AJ Green. Chad Johnson were both paid well on their 2nd contract. In case you haven’t noticed, teams can’t just pay everyone. They need to draft replacement players and pay the stars. The Bengals have mostly done that. 2 offensive guys that they’ll lose in a year or 2 will be Boyd and Mixon. Unless either take a huge pay cut
AJ Green got $9 million less in guarantees than Julio Jones the same offseason. It was also 7 years ago.
Who cares how many years ago it was and what he got paid compared to Jones. Green could have walked but apparently he was happy with the contract. I don’t know if you know this, but teams don’t give players blank checks. It’s a negotiation. The team is trying to get a good deal and so is the player. You think the Rams wouldn’t really want to be paying Aaron Donald 22 million instead of the increase he got. Bottom line is the Bengals keep their skill players for 2nd contracts. Same as most teams
Seven years ago is a long time in the NFL.
Ok, what good players got away outside of Whitworth in the last 7 years? I can’t think of anyone. Maybe the corner Joseph. All teams move on from players. The Bengals are definitely cheap in their scouting and FO and the day to day operations. They supposedly are finally getting an indoor practice facility
Thats true when you spend to the cap. Again, they historically have not.
You do realize that you can carryover unused cap? Cleveland is doing that this year. It’s kinds like an average of a few years from what I understand
Whitworth, Zeitler, Sanu, Marvin Jones, Michael Johnson, Lawson of the top of my head. I’m not really interested in diving deeper than that. They are consistemtly in the bottom 10 of cap spending (right there eith your Brownies).
Feel free to research further into depressing ohio football history since I know you love it.
Whitworth was let go at 35. After over a decade there. Yeah…that’s loyalty.
Kevin Zeitler…did what outside of Cinci? He literally hadn’t been selected to any pro bowl/all-pro teams and then got the largest salary for a guard ever. And then was traded a couple years in.
Mohammed Sanu had 33 catches for Cincinnati and then got over 6M a year. That’s replacement level production. You can draft a guy and make that happen and not pay 6M. And tell me, how did the rest of Sanu’s career play out?
Marvin Jones 8M salary wasn’t gonna fit when they were already paying guys. They literally replaced and improved upon his production the following season with LaFell and Boyd.
Michael Johnson? Really? Go look at what he did. Got a huge contract, got cut a season in and who brought him back for 4 more years? It was Cinci.
And I’m sorry but Lawson isn’t worth 15M per season. Not when you’re paying other guys. And know you have someone who is good in Burrow and then a couple years later, Chase.
But hey, shame on them for not paying guys who don’t typically produce at a certain age or guys that never did anything outside of the building. That’s a ridiculous argument.
I just basically wrote what you did
Sanu was 3rd WR. Lawson was basically traded for Hendrickson. Smart move. Jones was also an extra receiver. Johnson wasn’t that good. We’re talking pro bowl type players. Every team moves on from some players but the majority of the starters get extended. Chad Johnson, AJ Green, Dalton, Burfict, Pacman, Atkins, Houshmazadah. These are guys that performed. Certainly you’re gonna let guys go that didn’t perform like Jackson and the other corner they drafted high. The Bengals don’t go after super stars in free agency. That was true then and it’s true now. Hendrickson is probably the only one that was signed over 10 million except for the corner just released that never played. The guy from the Vikings. Even this years OL signings are middle of the pack signings but exactly what they needed. They didn’t need one great lineman, they needed 3-4 better than what they had lineman. Browns aren’t cheap either.
I felt that way for years but they’re spending on FAs and the cap will be an issue if they want Burrow and Chase long-term.
100 tackles and 3 picks a year. And most importantly he’s missed 1 game in his career. He’s got a solid argument to be paid top three S money.
I hope they pay him and then let Higgins walk.
Your safety getting 100 tackles a year isn’t really a good thing. It’s like the goobers who said the falcons should keep Oluokun for almost 200 tackles except 4 of them were for a loss. 100 tackles a season by a safety for a losing team…basically adds up.
Bengals drafted his replacement. He’s a really good player who played poorly in the regular season then played spectacularly in the postseason. Thanks for the hard work, good luck elsewhere next year Jesse. But no one is going to pass up $13M so he’ll report eventually
Here is the issue, what premium skill does he offer? He isn’t really a ballhawk. He isn’t a LOS guy getting sacks and hitting guys behind the line. He tackles. And he isn’t even the best at that. So if I’m the Bengals…I’m searching for a trade for this guy. He’ll never have more value than he does now, they drafted Daxton Hill and have Vonn Bell who essentially does what Bates does for a cheaper price.
He was one of the best coverage players in football in 2020. He had three interceptions every year of his career until last year and he had the sixth most passes defended in the NFL in 2020, and just about everyone ahead of him or near him on the list was a corner. It’s not like he’s just running down ball carriers.
He absolutely was not one of the best coverage guys in the league. At any point. He had a decline in numbers because his team was better. I don’t care what you do when your team is bad. It tells me your play isn’t factoring into winning. He allowed 80% of passes where he was the nearest defender. 12 yards per target. 122 QB Rating. He had a total of 8 splash plays. I’m sorry but that’s not a top caliber guy. Oh he had one good season when the team won 4 games? Hooray. Paying that guy is still dumb.
“I don’t care what you do when your team is bad.” So you’re going to discard all the other players on the team because they didn’t have a good QB for years?
You fail to mention that they had Burrow for 10 of 16 games that season. So his best year came when they had more than competent QB play for over half the season. And again, it didn’t translate to winning. His numbers went down, but his team was better. So the plus he was making weren’t translating to winning plays.
At a certain point, your play matches your teams output.
Jessie Bates is an okay safety that wants top market money. And that would be a huge mistake by the team to do that even if they didn’t have top tier players coming up on deals. It’s what bad teams do.
So you want him and then not be able to extend Higgins or Chase? They’ll extend Burrow but you’re not getting both receivers if you give Bates a 5/75 contract. Not happening
Their track record suggests they’re not going to keep all three of those guys long-term if all three want competitive contracts, Bates or no.
They have a much better chance without a safety making 17 million. Their LT will need to be extended too. LT aren’t cheap, even average ones.
I’ll believe it all when I see it, Bates or no Bates. And I don’t see any clear indication the Bengals are even willing to pay him like Marcus Williams.
They aren’t now. They drafted his replacement. The Bengals probably tried to extend him before the draft, he balked and now they drafted his replacement. Bates money will go to someone else now.
This is a good debate. In all seriousness, good job, guys.