A franchise tag is little more than a band-aid, and even then, it doesn’t always provide the temporary relief it’s supposed to. A player could decide not to sign the tender. A team could pull the tender. Both scenarios have happened in the recent past.
That probably won’t happen in the case of safety Jessie Bates and the Cincinnati Bengals, but it’s not clear that they are trending toward getting a long-term contract extension done, either. They already tried to get him under contract last year, and failed to do so.
“I don’t view it that different from last year”, said team executive vice president Katie Blackburn.