Cleveland Browns placed the franchise tag on TE David Njoku

[Jin Wah]

Bengals’ new helmets earn praise as mainstream embraces new era

It’s truly a new era of Cincinnati Bengals football and we are all here for it.

In the wake of the Bengals unveiling their new white alternate helmet, many across the media landscape took to Twitter to embrace the new, exciting times around Paul Brown Stadium.

That included not just media outlets embracing the new direction and sharing fun photos of it. Plenty of major media members like Louis Riddick, notably, led the charge in continuing to crown these “new” Bengals as modernized, both in play and in style.

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Here’s a look at some of the major attention the Bengals earned for finally granting the wishes of fans with the alternate helmets.

When the Cleveland Browns placed the franchise tag on TE David Njoku, it set up the possibility of a difficult negotiation between the two sides. Instead, the Browns and Njoku came to terms on a long-term deal and avoided any uncertainty of getting him locked up.

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Some questioned the contract size, but getting a deal done was far more beneficial than not.

Friday was the deadline for teams who used the franchise tag to get a deal done with their franchise player. Four players, TEs Dalton Schultz and Mike Gesicki, OL Orlando Brown and safety Jessie Bates III did not get deals done before the deadline.

All four will only have the option of playing on the franchise tag this season.

Bates, the Cincinnati Bengals star safety, may have had the most difficult negotiations of the four. According to Ian Rapoport, the Bengals only offered Bates around $17 million guaranteed on a five-year contract:

Bates will get around $13 million guaranteed whenever he signs his franchise tender with the team but, again according to Rapoport, that is not likely to happen anytime soon:

Coming off a Super Bowl appearance, Cincinnati has some quality players nearing the end of their contracts that they may value more than Bates. On the other hand, Bates is a top-level safety in the NFL and is a homegrown talent who now seems likely to wait until late into training camp before signing his tender and showing up.

It’s a matter of money and years when it comes to the standoff between the Cincinnati Bengals and franchise-tagged star Jessie Bates.

And as has been the case for a while now, it’s clear Bates is unlikely to report to training camp and will, at the very least, hesitate to play during the regular season on the tag, too.

CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson just reported this as well, noting that Bates “has no intentions” on training camp “nor playing on the franchise tag.”

Bates has the wiggle room to skip training camp, too. He hasn’t signed his franchise tag, so he won’t be subjected to fines for missing camp. Actually skipping games under the current CBA is trickier and could cost him money, but it’s hard to imagine things get to that point.

As of this writing, nothing too unexpected has unfolded between the two parties. The Bengals, with an eye on future deals, offered one of their typical extension outlines and Bates understandably balked and will use his last bit of leverage to stay as healthy as possible before free agency next offseason.

On July 18, EA Sports will begin to release playing ratings for Madden 23. But leaks have already begun, one in particularly important to the Pittsburgh Steelers. According to the Madden 23 Leaks Twitter account, Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt will finally join the 99 Club with the likes of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald.

This will be Watt’s first time making the list and long overdue. Watt is the current Defensive Player of the Year and tied the single-season sack record last season.

Join the community and give us your predictions for the Steelers player rankings ahead of the official launch. Who will be the next highest-ranked player? Give us your best guesses.