08-17-2021, 11:51 PM
(08-17-2021, 09:11 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Except that's how you get into bad contracts. You need it to also be based off of what he has done. That's why Hubbard was signed as a 2nd tier contract. You don't throw Top 1-3 contracts at guys based off of promise.Bates was regarded as the best safety in Football last season, he had a Terrific Rookie season, and the guy has played 99% of the defenses snaps the last three seasons,and has not missed one game in his whole career. To say he hasn't earned a new contract is ridiculously absurd.
Jamal Adams is only 1.5 years older than Bates but has a much much much stouter resume.
Your blind rallying call of "pay the man" is how the Bengals got stuck into a shitty deal with Mixon. There's no harm in letting Bates prove himself in 2021 if he wants to be paid as a top safety.
Except they're literally incapable of doing so as long as the Bengals give him the exclusive franchise tag in 2022. Heck, even if they give him the non-exclusive tag in 2022 that would still require an NFL team to not only pay Bates $17-18m/yr, it would also require them to give the Bengals 2 1st round picks.
The Denver S who had just signed the prior big contract this offseason was negotiating while being tagged for the 2nd straight year. It didn't stop them from getting a longterm deal done.
What's Bates option? Retire? He doesn't get paid. Sandbag? Nobody is going to pay a sandbagger, doubly so since Bates doesn't have an extensive history of excellence prior to it. His best option is to keep playing at a high level because he'll keep getting paid at a high level either by the Bengals once he's proven he's worth a top tier contract, or by another team once he hits FA in 2024. Le'Veon Bell showed that hold outs simply don't work. You'll probably never make that money back and the year off will probably ruin you on the field.
Also the numbers for safeties are only going to go up so signing him today would be a much cheaper move than tagging him twice.
Look at the upcoming free agent class in 2022
Marcus May, Tyran Mathieu, Marcus Williams, and Harrison Smith. Also Fitzpatrick will be looking for a new deal.
