Stephon Gilmore and the Patriots are in a staring contest, and have been really since the NFL Draft and the cornerback wasn’t traded.
Gilmore would like to make more than $7 million, which he’s on the books for in the final year of his deal, while the Patriots would probably like to pay him less than what he’s looking for and want to see him on the field following quad surgery late last year.
The 2019 NFL Defensive Player of the Year has been on PUP since the start of the summer and Tuesday’s the deadline for him to come off it and join the 53-man roster, or he cannot be added to the active roster until at least Week 6.
While both sides have been speaking like it’s an injury, it feels like if a contract agreement was reached, Gilmore would instantly return to the field. Therefore, the Patriots need to blink and give Gilmore what he wants — a serious bump in pay.
Gilmore has all the leverage against the team.
First off, the Patriots defense has the makings of something special this year with all the versatile pieces in the front-seven (Matt Judon, Josh Uche, Kyle Van Noy, Dont’a Hightower, etc.) and also in the secondary with Kyle Dugger and Adrian Phillips. But, without Gilmore the unit cannot reach its full potential and goes from elite to slightly better than average.
While the defense is solid overall, its depth at cornerback is anything but solid. Behind JC Jackson, there’s absolutely nothing. Jonathan Jones is a great slot corner, so he doesn’t really factor in, but the fact of the matter is there’s a lack of depth and it gets exposed with Gilmore off the field.
Jalen Mills is forced into a No. 2 cornerbacks role with Joejuan Williams, D’Angelo Ross, Myles Bryant or Michael Jackson filling out the position. At least with Gilmore and Jackson on the field, it’s the best 1-2 combo in the league and the rest can be figured out on its own.
And then when it comes to money, the Patriots have it. It’s not like last year where they had no salary cap space to work with, this year they have over $11 million to spend and what else are they going to spend it on? Sure, you keep some for in-season moves, but not over $10 million.
The Patriots could choose to play hard-ball with him and allow him to stay on PUP and miss at least six games, but what happens on the field during those six games? No matter who is at quarterback, the team is going to be relying on the defense and the pressure will be immense.
Imagine starting the year 2-4 with Gilmore not on the field? Coming off a 7-9 year, man that would be hard to take.
“Again, we have a lot of roster decisions to make and some of those are intertwined and some of the rules have changed from what they have been in the past," Bill Belichick said Monday when asked about Gilmore. "So, what we’ve done in a different year at a different point in time may or may not be relevant now. We’ll just take a look at everything and continue to evaluate Steph day-by-day, as we’ve done, and as he’s done, and work to get better.
“We have several players in a similar situation and we’ll get the most up-to-date information we can and try and make the best decision we can for our football team.”
It’s pretty obvious — the best decision for the football team is to give Gilmore what he wants so he gets on the field.
