NFL Safety Rankings: Where's Falcons' Jessie Bates III?

Jessie Bates III landed at No. 6 in ESPN's poll last year. Where was the Atlanta Falcons safety ranked before this season?

Out of all the additions the Atlanta Falcons made to their defense in the offseason, none were bigger than signing safety Jessie Bates III. 

Bates played his first five seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and made the Second-Team All-Pro in 2020. He signed a four-year deal for $64 million with the Falcons, and $36 million was guaranteed. 

ESPN ranked its top 10 safeties, and Bates landed at No. 6. He was also No. 6 in ESPN's rankings before the 2022 season. 

Bates' play led to him being compared to Denver Broncos safety Justin Simmons, who was ranked No. 3 by ESPN.

"He's 'Justin Simmons lite' - - classic post safety who can get the football, nice clean game, won t make mistakes but not a lot of electricity to his game," an NFL personnel director told ESPN. "Not a violent player."

Bates had a career-low 71 tackles last season but tallied a career-high four interceptions. Before 2022, he had at least 100 tackles in his first three seasons. 

Despite the dip in tackles, an AFC exec thought he improved that area of his game in 2022.

"I thought his tackling improved this year, and he already had the versatility and the ball skills," the AFC exec told ESPN.

Bates had three interceptions in each of the first three seasons of his career. ESPN also credited the sixth-year safety with "seven pass deflections on 30 targets as the nearest defender" last season.

Atlanta was 24th in the league with 10 interceptions and 31st in sacks with 21. They were also 23rd in points allowed per game with 22.7. 

The Falcons signed Bates with the hopes of him leading a defense that desperately needs to improve if they want to contend in the NFC South. If he can continue to play at a high level as he did for the Bengals, he'll greatly improve a more talented Atlanta defense in 2023. 

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