Bates - No Intentions Reporting to Camp or Play on Tag

[BFritz21]

(07-17-2022, 08:24 AM)bengaloo Wrote: Bates didnt play well last season until the playoffs. The lack of long term contract was in his head. Imo, it will be even worse this season if he goes back on his word and ends up playing. I see no real value in any of this. Its very obvious a long term deal isnt going to get done. I'd rather let him pursue his long term deal elsewhere and the team move forward without him. Best for both sides.

Same thing I was thinking.

At this point, it's time to face reality. This is a lose-lose situation for us. This is just going to cause a disruption in the locker room and he's probably just going to half-ass the regular season again. It might be time to just cut bait and get out. Let him go to the free agent market and see if anyone offers him anywhere close to the money that we were offering.

Do the Lions still have a need at safety? Could we potentially do a tag and trade?

The only problem with that is, like I said above, would they be willing to pay him anything close to what we were offering before the tag? 

I think that's what our front office should have sat down with Jesse and said: "listen, your agent is a douche and no other team is going to offer you 
anywhere near what we offered, so take it or leave it."

Or offered him what we were but then with an added incentive of making the Pro Bowl so he couldn't half-ass the regular season.