Jessie Bates still isn’t over the possibility of spending his career in Cincinnati, and he isn’t pretending otherwise.
The former Bengals safety opened up about that “what-if” in a conversation with Jordan Schultz, revisiting the decision that sent him to the Atlanta Falcons after Cincinnati declined to give him a multi-year deal when he was set to reach free agency in 2023. Bates had previously been franchise tagged, and once the Bengals moved on, the bridge was burned.
That exit still looks costly for Cincinnati. The team tried to replace Bates with Dax Hill, and that plan fell apart. The compensatory pick the Bengals received from Bates’ departure was used on McKinnley Jackson, who didn’t make the roster this year.
Bates was one of the important pieces on the Bengals’ run to Super Bowl LVI and the AFC title game the following season. Since then, Cincinnati hasn’t gotten back to the playoffs.
Bates hasn’t either. And when asked if he still thinks about what might have been, he didn’t dodge it.
“Heck yeah!”
He went on to say:
“We had a great run. [...]
Those times were some of the greatest times of my life. I understood it's part of the business sometimes.
You can't fit everyone in that cap number, but that number is a little higher nowadays than it was back around COVID. It's all a blessing.
It's part of the journey... I was there for five years.
That place has a special part in my heart for sure.”
Bates also made it clear he wasn’t holding a grudge. He said he understood the business side of the NFL, especially with the Bengals needing to pay Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
The part that stings for Cincinnati is that Joe Burrow publicly pushed for the front office to keep Bates.
There’s still at least a loose thread here, too. If the Falcons slip and the Bengals hammer Atlanta in Madrid in Week 9, Bates’ comments about the cap could invite reunion chatter.
For now, though, that sounds more like a fantasy than a real plan. Not at the trade deadline, anyway.
Maybe when Bates hits free agency this offseason.
Cincinnati’s safety play since Bates left only makes the regret louder. Jordan Battle has been a problem as a tackler and hasn’t matched his 2025 coverage level. The rest of the room has been a revolving door of misses, with Geno Stone standing out as the low point over the last two seasons.
The Bengals did bring in Bryan Cook this offseason, signing the former Chief and Cincinnati native, and he’s done enough to steady things despite a nagging ankle injury that cost him time. He’s been a dependable tackler and a strong locker room presence, two things the Bengals badly missed after Bates left.
And that’s the real point here: Bates wasn’t just another defensive back. He was the kind of safety who could read route concepts before they fully unfolded, then jump a play and turn it into a splash moment. In a couple of close seasons - both 9-8 finishes, one game shy of the playoffs in 2023 and 2024 - that sort of player might have been the difference between staying home and getting back in.
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For a Cincinnati team trying to stay sharp, the danger is less about Tennessees record and more about the temptation to assume the game will take care of itself. The Bengals know better than to walk into a road test like this thinking the Titans are reduced to one missing piece, especially with enough roster churn around them to make the tape look different from week to week. It has the feel of a game that can punish any lapse in attention, which is exactly why Cincinnati is talking about it like a trap without ever quite calling it one. [Read more 🡒]