ESPN.com · 5 days ago
Bengals face Falcons S Jessie Bates III, evoking mixed emotions
MADRID -- When the Cincinnati Bengals step on the field at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid on Sunday to face the Atlanta Falcons, the Bengals will be posed with a question it once forced other teams to ask.
How does one account for safety Jessie Bates III?
From 2018 to 2022, Bates emerged as one of Cincinnati's best playmakers in the team's run to the Super Bowl at the end of the 2021 season. But after Bates left Cincinnati in free agency, he has spent the past four seasons with the Falcons, with whom he has maintained his perch as one of the best in the NFL.
And ahead of Sunday's game, Bates was asked how much he thinks about the events that led him to leave the team that drafted him.
