Much has been said about where Cincinnati Bengals safety Jessie Bates might land in free agency.
So much so, it’s a foregone conclusion Bates will leave on the open market soon and the discussion has fully focused on the suitors lining up for his services.
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer talked about this in his latest column, bringing up some interesting names:
• I’d be surprised if Cincinnati’s Jessie Bates doesn’t cash in, and he may even scrape up against what Minkah Fitzpatrick and Derwin James got last year. In almost every case, you have to ask with free agents why their current teams are letting them go. In this one, it’s easy—the Bengals don’t want to lose him, but they have a lot of mouths to feed. So their loss could be the gain of a team such as Chicago, Cleveland or San Francisco. C.J. Gardner-Johnson is the one other safety who’ll be in eight figures, but not at Bates’s level.
The Browns wanting Bates and the star safety’s interest in playing with Deshaun Watson has been been a hot topic recently. Before that, Bates was spotted out with his reps and Atlanta Falcons stars.
New here is the idea the Chicago Bears or San Francisco 49ers could go after him too.
And for the Bengals, it might be preferable if Bates lands in the NFC. Or at least anywhere but Cleveland, where his familiarity with the Bengals offense would come in handy twice a year.
Barring something stunning though, the idea of a suppressed Bates market and his return to the Bengals is fully gone.
