Jessie Bates III

Atlanta Falcons

Pos S

Updated October 8, 2026

Compare Jessie Bates III S rankings →

Model Score

99.0 MODEL

2018

89.0

2019

80.5

2020

99.0

2021

76.2

2022

82.6

2023

99.0

2024

93.0

2025

89.8

2026

99.0

How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →

STM Take

Super Bowl LVI appearance plus 2023 1st-team All-Pro plus three straight tier 1 finishes (#6, #8, #5) in 2023-2025 establishes Bates as one of the elite safeties of his generation. The Wake Forest ACC 2nd-round origin plus the Atlanta chapter give him real career foundation. The 2026 question is whether Bates earns his third Pro Bowl plus holds tier 1 territory or whether the elite chapter continues climbing toward DPOY territory.

Bates came out of Wake Forest as the Cincinnati Bengals' 2nd-round pick (54th overall) in 2018 and played in Super Bowl LVI with the Bengals. He earned 2023 1st-team All-Pro plus two Pro Bowls (2023, 2024). His STTM career runs tier 7 (#56) in 2021, tier 5 (#34) in 2022, tier 1 (#6) in 2023, tier 1 (#8) in 2024, and tier 1 (#5) in 2025.

Strengths

Two Pro Bowls (2023, 2024) plus 2023 1st-team All-Pro plus three straight tier 1 STTM finishes establishes top-5 S career résumé.
Wake Forest ACC 2nd-round origin plus eight years of NFL elite production gives him real veteran market value.

Concerns

Atlanta's broader defensive identity around the Walker-Pearce double-1st-round investment compresses the structural support around Bates.
Multi-year elite-pace workload plus the 2018 draft class age puts the late-2020s structural decline question on every 2028+ projection.

What to watch: Whether Bates earns his third Pro Bowl in 2026 plus holds tier 1 (top 10), the threshold for confirming the structural ceiling continues.