Why the Commanders re-signed TE John Bates

Breaking down the value of having a strong blocking tight end like John Bates

One of the more under the radar signings for the Commanders this offseason was the re-signing of tight end John Bates. Bates was out of contract this offseason and many wondered if he would be back in Washington with so many other players to get re-signed. The tight end room had some defined roles in 2024, with Zach Ertz clearly the top receiving tight end option and rookie Ben Sinnott drafted in the second round to hopefully develop into a well-rounded option to eventually take over.

Bates, meanwhile, has been known as a blocking tight end that doesn’t offer a huge amount in the passing game. Despite that, the Commanders made sure to bring him back, signing him to a three year deal worth $21million with $11.5million fully guaranteed. That’s not top of the market money for a tight end, but it is still a significant amount of money. It comes in at around the 20th best tight end contract in the league, which might be surprising given that Bates had just eight catches for 84 yards last season under Kliff Kingsbury.

It prompted one of my readers to ask me earlier in the offseason why the Commanders would pay such a contract for a guy that is clearly a blocking tight end with little pass catching upside? Is his blocking ability really worth paying that much for? So I thought that now we’re past the main parts of the offseason with free agency and the draft wrapped up, I’d take a closer look at just why the Commanders paid so much to keep John Bates.

The first thing to note with Bates is that he has a mean streak to him. When we talk about offensive lineman, we always want to see that nasty streak, blocking through the whistle and finishing plays strongly to get under the skin of defenders and throw them off their game while establishing a tone. Bates isn’t quite an offensive lineman, but he does play with that same mentality.

This play against the Steelers is a great example of that mentality. The Commanders are running a zone scheme to their right with a read-option element added on to it. Bates is on the back side of the run, with his assignment being to help left tackle Brandon Coleman secure his block and then take over the block to allow Coleman to peel off and work up to the linebacker on the second level. Bates does well initially to work inside and help Coleman secure the defensive lineman.

However, as Coleman looks to climb up to the linebacker, the linebacker reads the running back cutting back to the left side of the line. That linebacker works around Coleman and attempts to get down to the line of scrimmage to make a play. Bates recognizes the issue and peels off the defensive lineman, who doesn’t know where the ball is, and picks up the linebacker instead. He gets just enough of the linebacker to prevent him from making the play, but then shows the nasty streak we all look for in the run game. Bates works hard to stay engaged in the block and ends up forcing the linebacker to the ground. The linebacker didn’t take too kindly to that block and the pair end up getting into a bit of a fight that had to be broken up by the referees.

Obviously you don’t want players getting into fights and receiving penalties as a result, but the play shows that Bates plays with the mentality of an offensive lineman rather than a normal tight end. That mentality is a key part of why he’s so important to the Commanders run game. But it’s not just mentality. Bates brings a lot to the run game as a blocker. He can perform a variety of different roles within various blocking schemes, which enables the Commanders to open up the playbook and scheme up some fun run plays.

Here we see the Commanders running a crunch scheme. Crunch is a common term for a run scheme that uses multiple trap blocks. You can see on the diagram before the play here, rather than everyone blocking the defender in front of them, the Commanders try to catch the Falcons by surprise by mixing up who is blocking who. Center Tyler Biadasz and right tackle Cornelius Lucas work immediately up to the second level, instead of blocking the defenders over their right shoulders. Meanwhile, the two guards work across to trap the defensive lineman left unblocked by Biadasz and Lucas.

For his role, Bates is asked to motion across the formation pre-snap and then slide outside and kick out the defensive end on the back side of the run. Bates executes his block well and you can see how the crunch scheme generates a nice lane on the back side. Coleman pins the defensive tackle inside along with the other trap blocks while Bates kicks out the defensive end, creating a huge lane between them for Brian Robinson to run into.

The Commanders used this crunch scheme multiple times throughout the season, but they liked to switch up how they got to it. They were able to do that in large part thanks to Bates.

This is essentially the same crunch scheme we saw before, but with a twist. This time Bates lines up on the left side of the line at the snap and he executes the same type of trap block that the guards do. What this means for Bates is that inside of trying to kick out a 260-pound defensive end, he has to try and trap a 300-pound defensive tackle, which is obviously a much harder job. But Bates doesn’t blink. He works inside off the snap and gets himself a good angle to trap the defensive tackle. It’s not some outstanding block where he knocks the defender to the ground, but he does just enough to make the block and allow Robinson to make his cut behind him. Robinson then goes and makes a safety miss and scores a touchdown as a result.

You can start to see from those two plays the versatility that Bates and his blocking ability brings to the Commanders run game. He executed two very different blocks within the same scheme and did both very effectively. That was consistent throughout the season from Bates. The Commanders did a really good job getting into certain packages of plays, schemes and looks that worked for them, but made slight tweaks each time to keep defenses from knowing exactly what was coming. For example, Bates was a key part of the Commanders use of unbalanced formations this year, as he was able to execute multiple roles within those looks.