The Atlanta Falcons woke up Monday morning and made a deal.
The NFL trade deadline is still nearly 36 hours away, but the Falcons have already traded Jessie Bates away to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The deal was reported about 7:50 a.m. ET by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, and it sends the star safety to the contending Jags.
Bates and the Falcons just played in Madrid, Spain on Sunday, but now Bates will have to get ready to relocate in a hurry.
Here’s what you need to know.
Jessie Bates Trade Details
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the trade.
The Jaguars get Bates from the Falcons.
The Falcons get a 2027 second-round pick and a 2028 fifth-round pick from the Jaguars.
Why Falcons Traded Jessie Bates
Bates had been in trade rumors for a while now, and the idea isn’t so much about the Falcons being total sellers before the deadline — it’s about cashing in on impressive value held by Bates, who is in the final year of his contract.
The Falcons are a team with a multi-year contention window. Bijan Robinson and Drake London are signing long-term. They don’t need to push all their chips into the center of the table this year.
Bates was in a position, with safety needed by a number of contenders, to bring back a strong return — and he is.
Getting a second-round pick (and a fifth-rounder) for a player who might not factor into the future plans in Atlanta was a great haul, and totally worth pulling the trigger on.
ESPN predicted over the weekend that the Falcons could picks in the third and sixth rounds for Bates, so the Falcons exceeded that cost.
ESPN’s Seth Walder also explained why Atlanta might trade Bates:
The Falcons have over $109 million of 2027 cap space (most in the NFL), per OverTheCap.com. So they’re almost guaranteed to be active in free agency, which in turn means there’s a chance they wouldn’t get a compensatory pick for Bates (because signings cancel out departures when compensatory picks are distributed). If the Falcons keep Bates through the deadline, the risk they lose him for nothing is high.
All told, it seems Atlanta has done well here to make a Bates trade happen with less than two days remaining until the trade deadline. If they were going to deal him — and clearly, they were — getting back the price they did is a big win for the Falcons.
Why Falcons Traded Jessie Bates, and What Atlanta Got in Return