Why the **** is Jessie Bates not signed yet?

[Luvnit2]

(04-18-2022, 05:18 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Seriously, why?

He himself has said he doesn't want to be the highest paid safety in the league. Taking that into account, the Bengals can absolutely afford to take on his new contract and should pay him.

Look, I know this has been beaten to death, but hear me out...

The salary cap is set to EXPLODE in a year or two with the new TV deals kicking in, fans back in attendance, gambling money, and the amazon money coming in.

Shouldn't the Bengals be doing everything possible to sign their best players to extensions right now BEFORE the cap increases? That way they are paying guys relative to this years cap number which is smaller than the future cap number. You could almost get a discount on Bates by signing him now compared to the current cap number and before contracts are set to sky rocket.

People have this same theory about signing Burrow next off-season - why would we not apply it to Bates?

Look at Jalen Ramsey for example. The guy is the best CB in the league and signed a deal in 2020 - 100 million over 5 years with 10 million of that guaranteed. Denzel Ward who is an inferior player just got basically the same deal with the Browns with over 75 million of it guaranteed.

Do we see where this is going?

If the rumors are true and it's hung up on guaranteed money (say Bates want's 80% of it guaranteed) then the front office is truly ***** themselves. If you can't get by giving your best player on defense guaranteed money than you sure as hell aren't going to get by giving some of the best players in the NFL guaranteed money (Burrow, Chase).

Maybe your answer is in your post, but we don't know since we have one statement from Bates about not highest paid, but no mention of how much we wants or how much is guaranteed.

Personally I think he is comparable to Tyler Mathieu who is a free agent right now. Tyler finds a home and Bengals and Bates then know a close value. Bengals have until July to lock him up on a new contract and as right now are in great shape with cap money, so I don't see an urgency on the part of FO needed yet. Also, he hurt himself in 2021, he did not play as a top 5 safety during the regular season, inconsistency will never get a player paid and while he was great in the playoffs, frankly he was just good during the regular season.

I don't buy the BS he lacked motivation due to not getting a new contract, winners prove others wrong and prove every game ther team needs them to win games, he did not do that in 2021 which was very disappointing.