The Cincinnati Bengals were adamant before and during Jessie Bates’ franchise tag holdout that he was one of the guys they were least concerned about when it comes to players training away from the team.
Buy Bengals TicketsFrom the sounds of it, Bates proved that idea right while he trained on his own amid his holdout.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor threw out a bit of coachspeak when addressing the topic recently.
“I forget that he missed time to be honest with you,” Taylor said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “I think he did a really good job taking care of himself. We wanted to be cautious as we integrated him back into what we were doing. He’s a got a great understanding of what we’re doing and he’s up to speed on any tweaks that we made and we expect him to be out there every down.” …
Coachspeak or not, Bates’ quick return to practices in his typical role backs up what his head coach has to say. He’s been in his usual spot, which means the coaches will get creative in how they use first-rounder Dax Hill alongside him.
To make room for Bates inside the 53-man limit, the Bengals made a few roster moves at the start of prep for Week 1.
