Jessie Bates III Talks 'Taco Tuesday' Falcons Contract Offer
The signing of ex-Cincinnati Bengals safety Jassie Bates III as the Atlanta Falcons hope to make a playoff push in the third year of the Arthur Smith/Terry Fontenot era.
The Falcons were aggressive in free agency, using their $60 million in cap space, despite still having a top-10 NFL Draft pick this coming April after a 7-10 season.
So what made the Falcons, a team that hopes to be on the backend of a rebuild, able to lure Bates away from the Super Bowl-contending Bengals?
"It was a lot of teams that were interested, but with the cap space, only a certain amount of teams can offer what they want to offer, with Atlanta being one of them," Bates said. "I was actually taking a nap, and I woke up and was going to get my car washed, just a normal taco Tuesday for me - and I get a phone call from my agent on FaceTime, and he said he got a deal done with Atlanta. I was sold right there, and then - we didn't talk much about other teams."
A host of Falcons players went out to dinner with Bates back in February, which ended up going viral on social media after a video was posted of the group on Instagram.
Bates' agent David Mulugheta, who was at the dinner, also represents Pitts, Terrell, and Hayward.
Despite already sharing familiarity with several Falcons, it still came down to getting the offer he wanted from a number of teams who were interested.
Cap room and the right offer certainly helped, but the players who took charge of recruiting Bates helped get the deal started well before free agency opened.
"You could say something like that," Bates said of his Falcon recruiters now turned teammates. "I think A.J. [Terrell] and Kyle [Pitts] and Casey [Hayward] did a really good job of recruiting me. I thought that just getting around those guys, getting around the city, asking some questions about the team and city and just catching up, we've got the same agent, so it's always love from that instance."
Bates signed with Atlanta to a four-year, $64 million contract that gives Atlanta a long-term safety who can play over the top and in the box, with the bonus of knowing what it takes to win.
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