When people think of the Cincinnati Bengals, most jump to Joe Burrow and the talented skill players on the offense, but Jessie Bates is the best player on this team.
Bates is the best player on the Bengals and based on recent player performances, it isn’t even close. Inside the top 100 players in the NFL, Cincinnati had only two, Jessie Bates and Joe Burrow. Admittedly Joe Burrow will climb this list very fast if he stays healthy, but Jessie Bates was far and away the best-rated player for the Bengals.
The fourth-year safety has improved every season he has been with the Bengals and is now regarded as one of the best safeties in the NFL. The only reason he does not get talked about more is because of the position he plays. Playing safety, he is just starting to get the respect he deserves as people around the NFL have noticed the special talent that he is.
Before we get too far, I need to highlight that Joe Burrow is a great player. If he puts together a full season of the potential he showed during his rookie year, he is going to be a top ten quarterback in the league.
While Burrow is going to get the spotlight again, Bates may be the biggest factor in determining success or failure for the Bengals this year.
Jessie Bates is one of the best safeties in the NFL and has quietly anchored the Cincinnati Bengals’ secondary
The third-year product was able to jump into the starting lineup as a rookie for the Bengals, and he has never looked back. He has been an anchor in proper tackling technique for Cincinnati, gaining at least 100 combined tackles in each season. What sticks out with Jessie Bates, however, is his ability to make the big play when it matters most.
Bates has recorded three interceptions in each season he has played, but that only tells part of his explosive playmaking ability. Bates has a tremendous ability to break up passes and force receivers to drop the ball. His knack for poking the ball free and causing an incompletion is why Cincinnati has relied on him in both man-to-man and zone coverage situations.
The other spectacular thing about Jessie Bates is his ability to cover the entire field. No matter where he is defending, if a deep ball is thrown, he has the speed and intelligence to cover any distance and be a factor on the play. This allows Cincinnati to disguise their coverages well and place Bates all over the field and force the hand of their opponents.
The Cincinnati Bengals are going to need a strong defense this year to give Joe Burrow a chance to succeed
There has been a lot written about how the Bengals can turn the script and by playoff contenders this year. Much of that revolves around the offensive line protecting Joe Burrow, the skill players stepping up, and the defense improving.
Let me tell you why the defense is the most important of these three.
If Cincinnati gets down big and is forced to throw the ball significantly more than they want to, they will lose most of those games. Not because Burrow, Tee Higgins, and Tyler Boyd are not talented, but because the offensive line is not good enough to hold up under relentless pressure.
For the Bengals’ offense to work, they need to be able to mix up running and passing plays to make up for the lack of a dominating defensive line.
Bates is going to be charged with limiting the big play this year on defense. The more the Bengals can slow the game down and force opponents to field goals, the closer the games will be.
This benefits Cincinnati by not having to force a specific play type but playing to their strengths. Bates is going to be a huge factor in determining the pace of each game they play, which will help give Joe Burrow easier opportunities.
The Cincinnati Bengals need to make re-signing Jessie Bates a top priority
Traditionally, Cincinnati’s free agency was a bit of a misnomer. The Bengals would focus almost exclusively on retaining their own players and then signing some back-end rotation-type players toward the end of the free agency period.
Recently Cincinnati has begun taking a serious look at free agents and offering some big contracts to new players. While this is a good strategy, the Bengals need to find the balance and start retaining some of their top players again.
Andrew Whitworth, Kevin Zeitler, Carl Lawson, and William Jackson III are recent examples of Cincinnati not meeting a player’s asking price and suffering from that player leaving. In most of these cases, the team has still not replaced that position with a player who can reliably be counted on.
Cincinnati cannot let this happen again and send the message that they will not meet players in the middle. There are examples of the Bengals extending and signing key players, and Jessie Bates needs to be the next one.
If a deal does not get done in the next week, there is a good chance Bates will have to play next year on the franchise tag. Cincinnati needs to do all in their power to keep that from happening and lock Bates into a long-term deal.