Zac Taylor calls Jessie Bates and Vonn Bell best safety duo in league

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor had some high praise for his safety pairing.

While the Cincinnati Bengals have showcased a strong offense through six games thanks to the Joe Burrow-Ja’Marr Chase duo, their defense has also quietly been a major reason the Bengals are 4-2.

The Bengals currently boast the league’s eighth-ranked raw total defense and are No. 5 in Defense DVOA at Football Outsiders.

Part of that has been their dynamic duo at safety, Jessie Bates and Vonn Bell. In fact, head coach Zac Taylor gave them quite the praise Monday, calling them the best safety tandem in the NFL.

There are a lot of quality safety pairings in the NFL, including the pair in Buffalo, Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer.

Bates (32) and Bell (31) currently total more tackles than Hyde (24) and Poyer (24). Though, to be fair, Hyde and Poyer have five combined interceptions while Bates and Bell don’t have any.

Nonetheless, high praise, as expected from Taylor, for two of his leaders on defense. Of course, what this is also going to do is fuel talks from fans that the Bengals need to extend Bates, who is in a contract year.

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