Sometimes, we can miss the good players on bad teams. It makes sense: their units don’t score well in team-level stats, their games aren’t interesting to watch, and their best plays can get lost in the shuffle as failures at other positions divorce the outcome of the play from the otherwise sound process. You might as well call this the Allen Robinson Effect.
I’m here to argue that Cincinnati Bengals safety Jessie Bates III belongs in this unfortunate family of underappreciated stars. Much like Denver Broncos safety Justin Simmons was before him, Bates has steadily improved over the first couple years of his career, but his growth goes unnoticed because he spends most of his time off-screen, policing the deep centerfield as the Bengals’ rangy safety valve.
Simmons’ national notoriety really took off in his first year of the Vic Fangio defense as his playmaking dialed up—he totaled more PBUs in 2019 than he had in his first three seasons combined. Bates is more so a center fielder than Simmons is, and their playstyles aren’t analogous—the comparison is one strictly of the leap Bates can expect as he continues to make plays.
In a 2018 class with high profile safeties like Minkah Fitzpatrick and Derwin James, Bates’ Wake Forest film went underappreciated. Bates is not built like those dudes and does not tackle like those dudes, and after a season with five picks for the Demon Deacons in 2016 put him on the radar, a quieter 2017 campaign with only one pick took him off of it again.
But Bates was immediately impactful for the Bengals as a rookie center fielder playing under Marvin Lewis and Teryl Austin, and has remained so under second-year defensive coordinator Lou Aramuno. Bates is second in the talented safety class in passes defensed since 2018 behind only Minkah Fitzpatrick, and trails him and Damonte Kazee of Atlanta by just one interception at the top of that leaderboard. Largely as a product of the sieve playing in front of him, Bates is also leading that group in tackles by a wide margin with 221, almost 30 more than the next closest defender (Terrell Edmunds).
But tackling really isn’t where Bates makes his impact—it was known coming out of Wake Forest that the thinner Bates didn’t like to wrap up, and it’s true of him now. The Browns did get the better of Bates in the hole on Thursday night when Nick Chubb had a full head of steam against Bates in gotta-have-it situations, and Bates went hunting for ankle and drag-down tackles given his lack of play strength.
https://twitter.com/BenjaminSolak/status/1308154553888632833
That’s not good for the Bengals defense, but Bates is so valuable in the passing game, he makes it all worth it. Bates isn’t afraid to hit when he’s policing the deep zones.
Against Los Angeles in Week 1, when Bates was frequently stretched by sideline vertical routes from Chargers receiver Mike Williams, Bates showed off his spectacular range and his willingness to arrive with thunder to the catch point, creating pass breakups with violence and discouraging quarterbacks from hanging their receivers out for further punishment.
https://youtu.be/bpGWvCYS81o
Bates was also able to step downhill and play with physicality when robbing underneath zones. Watch as he comes from depth in an inverted Cover 2 look on 3rd-and-9, diagnoses the crossing pattern, and arrives in time with the ball while securing the tackle through Hunter Henry’s trunk to ensure he doesn’t fall forward toward the line to gain.
https://youtu.be/wETD-cglZ4A
Bates can also play downhill on a hair trigger. Watch how early he identifies the split flow from Keenan Allen and the acceleration it takes to close the gap in time with the throw. Bates and Allen got offsetting penalties for lowering the head here, and Bates got hit with an unnecessary roughness on one of his sideline hits as well, so playing fast and physical without drawing flags is a critical growth step for Bates, but few defenders in the league are playing with this much pace and violence. It’s impressive to see.
https://youtu.be/SQpWIqKzRZw
Bates may never be the best run fill defender from depth, but he is not nearly the Bengals’ first problem there. Without Geno Atkins, their interior of D.J. Reader and Mike Daniels is struggling to account for a young and struggling linebacking corps—it’s the front seven that should be the primary concern for Bengals fans when it comes to stopping the run. Bates as the safety valve should be trusted to make touchdown-saving tackles. But what you prioritize there is not his run defense, it’s his presence in the passing game. That’s where Bates has shined for two seasons, and early on in the 2020 season, that’s where he’s shining again.
Bates’ ability to win with physicality at high speeds is leading to critical plays on a depleted Cincinnati secondary, and as the run defense and pass coverage around him improve on a young Bengals defense, more people will become aware of just how much of an impact he has at just how incredible a range. Get on the train now before it leaves the station.
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