11-10-2024, 04:25 PM
(11-10-2024, 12:08 PM)samhain Wrote: You just answered your own question, Nate. You say that it was understood that he wasn't going to be paid by the organization. Why is that acceptable? I get that the team more or less sold that narrative to the fans for a few years. Why?
Jesse Bates was drafted in the Billy Price draft. That's 2018 if I'm not mistaken. He should have been extended around when Mixon was. There were no other players worth paying on the roster at that point (from a long-term perspective). Maybe Hubbard.
Bates was a culture guy for Taylor. He believed in the new staff while others like Dunlap defected and Geno retired. He supported Taylor/Anarumo when almost nobody did.
In other words, he was exactly the kind of player you reward with a contract extension. Homegrown, semi-local (from Indiana, I think), transitional between two regimes, and capable of elite to near-elite play.
Why would an organization tell it's fans and players to just accept that a guy like that is leaving? Two reasons I can think of: 1. They really are so entrenched in the idea of "premium positions" that they can't wrap their heads around paying a safety big money. 2. They really had no idea how significant the impact of losing Bates would be, which is also unacceptable.
It's not crying over spilled milk if the overall cultural problem persists. The milk will spill again. Over and over. With guards like Kevin Zeitler and Eric Steinbach. With safeties like Bates. They have a hierarchy of premium positions and it makes no sense anymore. You pay known good players, period. It's on them to understand their importance and impact.
Very rational post Sam. But we also have to remember that Bates wasn't near as good here as he has been in Atlanta and that during
the franchise Tag he was a very poor tackler and showed poor effort. He did play great in the Playoffs leading up to our Super Bowl
appearance but there were times for us when he wasn't near as good as he has been in Atlanta.
For this reason, I don't cry over that spilt milk and focus on solutions. CTB very well could be that solution, move him to Free Safety
and start Jordan Battle at Strong.
