The NFL free agency pool has dried up like a Hill Country lake after decades of drought.
The key free agent signings have all largely been made, pivotal trades were agreed upon, and all 32 teams had their fair shot at the draft in April. The league is now settling into the slower part of their offseason that features far less drama than they enjoyed with the release of the 2022 schedule.
However, like every offseason, there are a category headlines that never seem to fail in the drama category: contract negotiations.
Whether it’s players like the Arizona Cardinals’ Kyler Murray deleting Instagram posts, or leaks from reporters and agent regarding someone’s unhappiness, it is officially leverage season in NFL front offices. The average NFL career is only three seasons and players have a responsibility to try to secure as much money as they can while available. General managers have a responsibility to retain as much cap flexibility as possible to try to win a Super Bowl.
Caught in the middle of this dance are the reigning AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals. Teams often make it to the Super Bowl due to overwhelming talent and then are forced to suffer from the inevitable principle that follows: you can’t pay everyone. The Bengals are having to move forward with cap flexibility in mind to hopefully extend both Tee Higgins and certainly star quarterback Joe Burrow in the near future.
This has left 25-year-old safety Jessie Bates in a bit of an awkward place. The 2020 second-team All-Pro has over 400 career tackles and 10 interceptions during the course of his four year career. Bates is widely considered one of the best young safeties in the league and played a huge part in their run to win the AFC Championship.
This offseason, Cincinnati was forced to play hard ball. They opted to franchise tag Bates at a $12.3 million value, far less than Bates peers such as Marcus Williams (five-years, $70 million) were signing on the free agent market. Appropriately, Bates…
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