Report: Jessie Bates has no plans to sign franchise tag

Posted by Charean Williams on May 16, 2022, 7:32 PM EDT
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Bengals safety Jessie Bates hasn’t shown up at the team’s voluntary offseason workouts because he hasn’t signed the franchise tag.

Tyler Dragon of USA Today reports Monday that Bates has no plans to sign the one-year, $12.91 million tag or play this season without a long-term deal.

The sides have hit an impasse in talks, according to Dragon, and they have until July 15 to work out a long-term deal.

The Bengals want to keep Bates long term, and Bates wants to remain long term. But the team did cover its bases by drafting safety Daxton Hill and defensive back Cam Taylor-Britt in the first two rounds and adding safety Tycen Anderson at No. 166 overall.

Bates totaled at least 100 tackles three of the past four seasons.

In his four-year career, Bates has 408 tackles, 35 pass deflections and 10 interceptions in 63 career games.

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42 responses to “Report: Jessie Bates has no plans to sign franchise tag”

  1. He’s one of my favorite Bengals and my daughter absolutely loves him but he thinks he’s worth 20 million a year and it’s just not true

  2. When you’re winning, not everyone can be paid top dollar. Cincy usually takes care of their in house talent. Jesse must want to be paid as the best or second best safety. Not in the cards.

  3. He has the same agent as DeShaun Watson and Jalen Ramsey. He’s probably looking for way too much money.

  4. Love Bates and would be great to have him play in stripes a few more years. Not willing to bust up this team to keep him though if dollars don’t make sense.

  5. Seeing as how torched that secondary was last year, I wouldn’t be overpaying for any personnel in the back half of that defense

  6. I get he wants to cash in but the bengals got 3 huge contracts coming up to think about in burrow, Higgins, and chase. I love bates as much as any bengal fan, but the dude needs to the realistic, go to a crap team that over pays or take a modest pay day and compete for a championship. We want you bates but at the expense of other playmakers.

  7. In a salary cap league no one is ever going to make what they are worth. It is impossible to even determine what that is. So players have to strike while the iron is hot. Good luck to him.

  8. Can’t get a guy to show up for work for $12 million??? Football is dying…

  10. This is simple.
    (a) Sign it and make great money or
    (b) Don’t sign it and sit for a year only to have the Bengals still have his rights then.

    Does he think he’ll get 12m then? Unlikely

  11. Yep, was kind of expecting this.
    Tough call for the Bengals. They need to think about cap space for Higgins, Burrow, Chase upcoming. It may not be a good idea to sign a Safety to $18M APY. He’s good, and he’s important to team leadership — it’s a tough one.

  12. I’ve never understood the concept of being in a great situation and forfeiting that for some extra money. I don’t know what he can’t do for his family with $70 million that he could with $90 million. When you go to that level, it’s just plain greed. But everyone has a right to make their own decisions. Good luck to him.

  13. Mike Brown is getting pretty loose with the money these days. Building a new practice facility and everything. Plus, he made a vow to keep the championship team together.
    Bates is going to get his money. Brown is feeling so good he’ll probably give Bates a little under the table too.

  14. Pay the man whatever he wants then cut him in a few years, it’s not like contracts mean anything in this league anyway

  17. Ask Bell how that works out not signing it. I’m sure something could be worked out but if (a big if) he holds out into the season the track record isn’t great for his future. Does he deserve asking for more? Maybe… but he does play a position that honestly doesn’t get a heck of a lot of money nor very few are game changers.

  18. If I was the GM I’d deal him right now. Anyone not willing to honor his contract and the rules of the league will end up doing it again.

    At that point they’ll have massive money invested and a cap hit also.

    I only play GM though. 🙂

  19. Tyrann Mathieu in KC wanted 16m plus per year, the Chiefs said no, so his defense was they never offered up a contract. Sorry TM, you lost a step last season and went from being a tackler to a ball hawk.

  20. Sorry……..but when you think you are more valuable than the boss, you better be able to realize who holds the upper hand. Sorry Jessie, I hate to inform you that you are going to lose. The owner has the responsibility of every associated with the team. Not just you

  21. Yall acting like players should just take a paycut because it’s good for the team aka the fans. Heck no, get paid

  23. Mike Brown once again shows exactly who he is, which is still someone who won’t pay safeties.

  24. I hope they let him sit out the year and trade him.
    He disappeared for a large chunk of last year and if that’s his attitude then get rid of him.

  25. On that team Burrows Chase and Higgins are the players you need for o pay..I watched Mike White throw for 405 yards do against that secondary..

  27. This is the Catch-22 for me in football. I want the player to get all the money he can and this may be his only chance to do so. At the same time as a fan of a team in a salary cap league I know it’s probably not a good idea to pay him what he’s asking for.

  28. This is such a non-story. If you read his actual comments, it’s exactly the same as every other player who’s on the franchise tag: ‘no one wants to be tagged’; ‘that’s really between my agent and the team’; ‘I hope we work it out because I really don’t want just a one-year deal’; etc. His problem is that, if he sits out and signs elsewhere next year, he will never recover the 12.9 million he’ll get under the tag, even if he signs a huge deal. He also has forgotten that he was below-average the first half or 2/3 of last season, which he admitted was because he was unhappy with not having signed an extension. I love Bates and he was fantastic in the playoffs, but I suspect he’s asking for money above his actual value, which is too bad for both sides.

  29. Key part of a very strong secondary; 6 points in 65 minutes against a decent Chiefs offense isn’t too bad. That said, money is needed elsewhere. Good kick to JBIII and get paid, you earned it.

  30. Just request a trade Jessie…
    The Bengals will give you one.
    Your not getting top top safety money here, even though you are valued. The team doesn’t have it in the structure to do so.
    Don’t go negative as that will result in three things.
    1. Brown will see it as a fight, and will sit on you and your rights till he’ll freezes over. (Ask Chad)
    2. You will ruin your rep across the league as you will come off as a “ME” guy.
    3. Your skills will deteriorate as you sit, and the Top $ you’re looking for will dissolve away as well.

    Mike Brown will either help you out or screw you over, and it’s all about your approach. Trust me will not react normal in his decisions, so just personally ask.

  31. I THINK he’s not the type to disrupt the team. Maybe he won’t show up, but he won’t show up and pout either. I’d sit on him for awhile, maybe into the season if necessary. At that point, if he’s still not there they have to listen to offers. No one will have the cap space to take his franchise tag number, so there has to be someone willing to pay top dollar contract for a not quite top safety and spread the cap hit out to fit it this year.

  32. If they do have to cut or trade him, anyone know how much of that cap savings they can spend next year, if any? No way they can let that big number go to waste, they’d have to extend Higgins or someone else with the space.

  33. Bates is a very good player. If he won’t sign with the team at a fair rate, it appears the team drafted 3 players who can replace him. It’s probably better to take the $12.9M financially than to lose a year of income.

  34. Fine as a negotiating tactic to threaten, but if he sits out rather than playing for $12 mn and then becoming a FA, the man is a fool.

  35. It seems to me that in the end, no one outside of a franchise QB is worth $20 million/yr.

    It’s hard to think of enough cases where teams overpaid random other players that ended up making a positive difference for the life of the big contract.

  36. “What part of my franchise tag for profit home study course have you not figured out?”
    – Kirk Cousins

  37. To those of you saying the team should cut/trade him and save cap money: he is not currently signed to a contract, so he currently counts as $0 against the salary cap. He can be neither cut nor traded until he signs the franchise tender .

    All the thumbs down in the world won’t change Mike Brown. He doesn’t pay safeties.

  39. He wants top 3 money but he’s simply not a top 3 safety. The only way he gets that is to hit free agency. If money is his only motivator he needs to hit free agency next year. in the meantime, he needs to show some professionalism and have a great year this year. If he wants to sit out Ota’s and camp that’s is right and I understand it. He didn’t do himself any favors last year by dogging it for a good portion of the regular season. When motivated, he is a top ten safety and he’s young enough to improve on that.

  40. And now we know why the Bengals took 2 safeties in the draft. Jesse Bates is a good talent, but his play last season (contract year) was inconsistent until the playoffs.

  41. ehsteve says:
    May 17, 2022 at 11:20 am
    To those of you saying the team should cut/trade him and save cap money: he is not currently signed to a contract, so he currently counts as $0 against the salary cap. He can be neither cut nor traded until he signs the franchise tender .

    ________________________________________________________________________

    Exactly the reason he has no power here. If he sits he does not get paid and they have his rights next year or as long as he sits. The year does not even count as being played for him. Right now he is in limbo. The team very well has the right to work a trade out ahead of time for him so when and if he signs they can ship him off the next day without him having any say in it. They can do nothing and it hurts them in no way.

  42. I don’t blame someone for wanting as much as they can get, but Bates isn’t the best safety of all time. Take your tag and hopefully next year you get paid. Otherwise, lose 13 million and risk trying to get a deal that gets you that money back. Won’t happen. I like you Bates… all Bengals fans do. Hopefully you play for us this year regardless! But a big contract just isn’t in the cards for you in my opinion.

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