The Cincinnati Bengals beat up on the Atlanta Falcons in Madrid to reach 6-2 on the season.
Their next move should be trading for Falcons safety Jessie Bates.
Plenty of jokes along the lines of “having Bates fly home from Madrid with the Bengals” made the rounds on social media during and after the game.
But they aren’t that far off.
The Falcons are 3-6. The NFL trade deadline is next week. Bates is one of those players who actually makes sense as a trade candidate and would recoup decent value.
For the Bengals, this isn’t even about criticizing Jordan Battle’s play. It’s more of an injury thing. Bryan Cook has been in and out of the lineup with injuries. Battle has been on injury reports. Capable rotational veteran Kyle Dugger has been out for weeks.
When it comes to reuniting with Bates, the Bengals know him very well. That's a rarity in trades. It’s safe to say the actual trade asking price might top out at a third-round pick. The real ask is acquiring Bates’ remaining contract that had a $24.7 million cap number this year and the fact he’ll need a new contract at the age of 30.
Not terrible problems for the Bengals, though. It’s very obvious watching Al Golden’s defense each week that there is erratic play on a per-drive basis that could use some cleaning up. Getting a leader and rangy player like Bates in the back seven is just a no-brainer of a move at the projected price.
Nothing will ever be as flashy as trading the 10th pick for Dexter Lawrence. But nobody needs to play the what if? game on this topic when the Bengals trading for Bates isn’t really that unfathomable, all things considered.
The Bengals are all-in. What better way to stress that than by poetically fixing one of their biggest mistakes of the last five-plus years?
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals’ next move after beating Falcons should be Jessie Bates trade
