Don’t let Bengals’ lost season overshadow Jessie Bates’ elite breakout year

The Cincinnati Bengals have a special player with safety Jessie Bates.

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Lost in the muck of another two-win season for the Cincinnati Bengals is the standout play of safety Jessie Bates.

After struggling at times in 2019 but flashing some of that immense upside, Bates has fully broken out in a massive way this year.

In fact, he’s playing like one of the best outright safeties in football. He’s picked off three passes, has 88 total tackles and has 10 pass breakups and has allowed a 54.3 completion percentage when targeted, plus has a staggering 91.3 grade at Pro Football Focus.

And any time Bates gets in front of the mic, it’s a showcase for what a leader he is. Just look at his recent comments, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:

“The thing I like about what we’re doing is we just continue to fight. Just continue to challenge the guys in the huddle. We give up a big play, they’re down there on the goal line and I just continue to preach ‘We cannot give up a touchdown. We cannot give up a touchdown.’ And we held our own. I think we held a team to 19 points in back-to-back weeks. It doesn’t happen a lot in the NFL. Not moral victories or anything like that, but I like the energy that we played with on defense today.”

PFF provided some important context for just how well Bates continues to play:

In lost seasons like this, it’s important for a franchise to get developmental players some run and find leaders and producers like Bates.

Cincinnati has lucked out in a big way with Bates and now the attention has to turn to this offseason, where he’ll likely seek an extension with just one year remaining on his rookie deal.

There, it will be critical to the rebuild — no matter what happens with the coaching staff — that the Bengals lock up a defensive cornerstone all 31 teams would love to have.

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