Cincinnati Bengals safety Jessie Bates might be in the middle of a holdout during training camp after receiving the franchise tag, but he still showed up to his team’s first preseason game on Friday night.
Buy Bengals TicketsBates posted an Instagram story revealing he was at Paycor Stadium during the team’s eventual loss to the Arizona Cardinals and it wasn’t long before cameras found him in one of the boxes and confirmed it was him.
After not reporting to training camp, Bates has been training away from the team while using his last bit of leverage while trying to avoid injury before playing on the tag.
Teammates expect Bates back soon, though it’s unclear if Friday night was a signal of that happening soon or whether he was just supporting his guys. Either way, he got to watch first-round rookie Dax Hill start in his place, a guy he’s reached out to and offered to help.
📽️Jessie Bates III is at the #Bengals game.@WCPO @jlbiii3 pic.twitter.com/ikhlTLqLDD
— Caleb Noe (@CalebNoeTV) August 13, 2022
