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Jessie Bates contract dispute has been one of the main storylines surrounding the Cincinnati Bengals offseason. Bates is an integral piece of Cincy's defense, and their failure to lock him up on a long-term deal has to be viewed as a massive failure for the organization.
The Bengals opted to franchise tag Bates at the start of the offseason in hopes that they could reach a new deal with him. But that never materialized, and Bates is not happy about that. Bates has not signed his franchise tag tender yet, and reports stated that he was expected to hold out once training camp rolled around.
With players set to report today, Bates was unsurprisingly not present. Bates' dispute with the Bengals front office had been trending towards this resolution for some time, and it's a massively disappointing result given how important Bates is to Cincinnati's defense
As expected, #Bengals star safety Jessie Bates didn’t report to training camp, per source.
Bates hasn’t signed his $12.9 million franchise tender and thus isn’t subject to fines for his absence, which could go on for a while.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 26, 2022
As Tom Pelissero of NFL Network notes, since Bates hasn't signed his franchise tag tender, he won't be subject to fines since he isn't techinically under contract, so that appears to be a tactical move from Bates. There's no resolution in sight here, though, so this hold out could go on for quite some time.
The Bengals front office has struggled to come to terms with the fact that if they want to keep their star players, they are going to have to pay them. They have to worry about extensions for Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins soon as well, which is why their failure to extend Bates is such a big problem for the franchise.
Jessie Bates not reporting to training camp is a huge issue for the Bengals, and after an offseason of good work, it looks like the one move they couldn't make will come back to bite them in the butt.
