It wasn’t too long ago that the general consensus among both media and fans was that Stephon Gilmore’s time in New England was coming to an end, that the former NFL Defensive Player of the Year was set to be traded out of town.
There were reports that the Patriots had trade discussions revolving around their best defensive player last offseason.
There was the whole story-within-a-story-that-may-not-have-really-been-a-story of Gilmore selling his house, with offers due to coincide with the trade deadline.
But then a funny thing happened. Last season’s trade deadline came and went. Gilmore stayed put.
Oh, he’ll be traded before the 2021 Draft became the new working trade theory.
Yet, he wasn’t.
Gilmore remained on the New England roster after April’s Draft just the way he did after last season’s traded deadline.
But Gilmore’s contract is still very much an issue for both the No. 1 cornerback and his team.
Gilmore, who got an advance on his 2021 salary last fall to apparently keep him happy with his contract and on the field, is heading into the final season of the five-year, $65 million deal he signed with the Patriots to bolt the Bills back in free agency of 2017.
He’s set to earn a salary of just $7 million this season.
It’s a relatively measly amount for a player of his still-elite skills. An amount that by all accounts the cornerback will not play for in 2021.
Gilmore, who is also recovering from a quad injury that sidelined him to close out last season, did not take part in the Patriots voluntary OTAs this spring nor the team’s mandatory minicamp.
He is, in fact, in the midst of a contract holdout.
Everyone knows it.
And yet, less than a year after everyone assumed Gilmore would be traded, everyone seems to now be assuming that the situation between the veteran cornerback and the Patriots will be worked out.
For the record, we’re as guilty of that as anyone.
ESPN’s Mike Reiss wrote this weekend of Gilmore’s minicamp absence, “while some holdouts can become acrimonious, my sense on Gilmore's mindset is different. He seems to enjoy being a Patriot, is open to sticking around, and this was his least-expensive-but-most-decisive way of sparking more productive contract talks with the team, so he can feel better about being part of New England's present and future.”
Maybe Bill Belichick and the Patriots are open to and prepared to give Gilmore a bump in pay to get his 2021 compensation in line with what the player and the market say he’s worth.
Maybe there can even be an extension for the cornerback as he approaches his 31st birthday this September.
Maybe.
But these are unknowns and everyone simply seems to be assuming that Gilmore will be a healthy, happy key contributor to a rebuilt, retooled, resurgent New England defense this fall.
This after we all assumed that Gilmore was headed to another team not too long ago.
We were all wrong then, couldn’t we all be wrong again?
Isn’t there at least a chance that Gilmore doesn’t report for training camp in a little more than a month at Gillette Stadium?
Isn’t there a chance that he and the Patriots can’t reach an agreement on a new deal, at least not in time to open the regular season?
This was the discussion that evolved on the most recent offseason edition of WEEI’s Off Day Podcast.
In a perfect Patriots world Gilmore will report for camp in the final week of July, happy and compensated in a way that meets his needs and his team’s budget. He’ll be ready to be a key part of a defense that could be the key to New England chances at competing at a relatively high level in 2021.
That would be great, but what if that’s not reality?
What if all of us who are assuming that Gilmore will be ready to go in September are wrong regarding the cornerback’s status? Again.
The listen to the latest Off Day Podcast, including the Gilmore discussion, click here!