With Sam Hubbard deal done, Jessie Bates’ extension is next for Bengals

It always felt like Sam Hubbard’s extension with the Cincinnati Bengals was going to get done well before the team got around to extending star safety Jessie Bates.

One reason — simplicity. Now it’s Bates’ turn.

Everything was easy about getting Hubbard’s deal done. He’s a quality rotational piece, not a top-of-league player at his position. Give him four more years worth $40 million and call it a day.

Now the fun begins.

Bates is one of the league’s most criminally underrated players. He knows it. His reps know it. And so do the Bengals.

That complicates things at a position where Landon Collins nearly leads the NFL with an average annual value of $14 million — an overpay by a bad Washington team. Denver’s Justin Simmons tops the league at a $15.25 million AAV and Seattle’s Jamal Adams currently aims to reset the top of the market with an extension of his own.

Not that the Bengals have had problems retaining their own by paying top dollar. Complicated doesn’t have to mean something doesn’t get done. If one had to play the odds on Bates getting an extension, it’s somewhere in the 80th percentile.

It’s just worth pointing out that Hubbard’s getting done first isn’t any sort of concern. Just like Hubbard, the Bengals know what they have with Bates.

And for his part, Bates wants to stay in town and hasn’t sounded too concerned about it. As the last remaining big-ticket item on the docket for the Bengals this summer, the Bates extension feels like a matter of when, not if.