Is the extension and/or franchise tag drama between the Cincinnati Bengals and star safety Jessie Bates almost over?
Maybe not, but Bates sure seems to know what he’s doing on social media. The window for teams to place franchise tags on players opened this week and Bates, right on cue, sent out an eye-emoji tweet that sent Bengals fandom into a ruckus.
Normally that wouldn’t be enough, but right before doing that, Bates retweeted teammate Mike Hilton’s public plea for the Bengals to extend the star safety.
While no official word about anything followed Bates’ tweets, his being a fan favorite, obvious re-signing candidate and critical member of the current contending roster led to social media going wild with speculation.