• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Cleveland Sports Today

Cleveland Sports News Continuously Updated

  • Browns
  • Guardians
  • Cavaliers
  • Colleges
    • Akron
    • Cleveland State
    • Kent State
    • Ohio State
    • Youngstown State

Bengals Jessie Bates won't report to camp; Watson's contract's indirect impact

July 26, 2022 by Browns Wire

Somewhere between “the salary cap is a myth” and “the salary cap keeps teams from keeping good players” is the truth.

The NFL uses the salary cap primarily as an accounting tool to keep teams in line with each other and encourage parity. Every dollar paid to a player must be accounted against the cap somehow. The creativity comes with the ability to decide when that happens.

The use of bonuses has long been a tool to spread cap hits out. Recently, teams have started using void years in contracts to do the same.

Generally, the salary cap doesn’t keep teams from retaining their top talent but often can cost them some of the middle-of-the-roster guys.

The Cincinnati Bengals, seemingly, have gone cheap with their franchise safety Jessie Bates and, now, he won’t be reporting to training camp:

Star Safety Jessie Bates III will not report to Cincinnati Bengals camp with the rest of the team’s veterans on Tuesday, per source. This was largely expected as Bates hasn’t signed his franchise tag tender. So, the wait continues.

— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) July 25, 2022

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

According to the team’s owner, retaining other players like Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase is the highest priority:

Mike Brown on Burrow contract: We’re trying to prepare to find a way to keep Joe here, keep Chase here, keep Higgins here and keep Boyd here for example, it’s gonna be a real challenge for us” @WLWT #Bengals #RuleTheJungle pic.twitter.com/XmobYTQE0O

— Mark Slaughter (@MarkVSlaughter) July 25, 2022

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

One interesting aspect of the NFL’s financial rules is that all guaranteed money in a contract must be placed into a separate account by ownership immediately. Bates’ contract offer had very little guaranteed money over the franchise tag.

The Cleveland Browns could play a role in Cincinnati’s decision-making. The contract they gave QB Deshaun Watson was fully guaranteed which puts pressure on teams like the Bengals to guarantee a big chunk of Burrow’s contract. Kyler Murray, the latest quarterback to sign, has the second most guaranteed money at over $100 million.

From a salary cap perspective, the Cincinnati Bengals could find a way to keep all of their top players. From a cash-on-hand perspective, it is possible that they cannot upfront the kind of guaranteed money it would require to keep all of their top players. Brown’s use of Patrick Mahomes’ statement at the end of the above video seems to reference that.

Based on NFL rules, Bates can no longer sign a long-term deal this season.

Like this article?

Sign up for the Browns Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning

An error has occured

Please re-enter your email address.

Thanks for signing up!

You’ll now receive the top Browns Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook

Filed Under: Browns

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Guardians 4, White Sox 2: Logan Allen is Too Much for Southsiders
  • GAME THREAD: Guardians at White Sox, game 94 of 162
  • GAME THREAD: Guardians at White Sox, game 93 of 162
  • Cleveland Browns Training Camp 2025: WR Preview, Part 2 – More slot contenders, and returners
  • You’re Nuts: Will Christoph Tilly or Brandon Noel score more points per game this season?

Categories

Archives

Our Partners

All Sports

  • 247 Sports
  • 923 The Fan
  • Bleacher Report
  • Cleveland.com
  • Cleveland Sports Talk
  • Factory Of Sadness
  • NEO Sports Insiders
  • OurSports Central
  • The Sports Fan Journal
  • The Spun
  • USA Today
  • WKYC - NBC 3

Baseball

  • MLB.com
  • Away Back Gone
  • Last Word On Baseball
  • Lets Go Tribe
  • MLB Trade Rumors

Basketball

  • NBA.com
  • Amico Hoops
  • Cavs Nation
  • Fear The Sword
  • Hoops Hype
  • Hoops Rumors
  • King James Gospel
  • Last Word On Pro Basketball
  • Pro Basketball Talk
  • Real GM

Football

  • Cleveland Browns
  • Browns Gab
  • Browns Plainly
  • Browns Wire
  • Dawgs By Nature
  • Dawg Pound Daily
  • Last Word On Pro Football
  • NFL Trade Rumors
  • Our Turf Football
  • Pro Football Focus
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Football Talk
  • Total Browns

College

  • Busting Brackets
  • College Football News
  • College Sports Madness
  • Forgotten 5
  • Land Grant Holy Land
  • Saturday Blitz
  • Scarlet And Game
  • The Lantern
  • Zags Blog

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in