Stephon Gilmore is currently on the PUP list for the Patriots, which means the earliest he can play in a game this season is Week 7.
It's due to a quad injury, although some believe if he received a bump in pay this summer he'd be playing.
Appearing on Gresh and Keefe Thursday, NFL Media's Ian Rapoport gave an update on what he's hearing with Gilmore.
“So, here’s my understanding of where it stands: Stephon Gilmore would not have been able to play Week 1 regardless of what list he was on," he said. "A better kind of gauge of where he was going to be, I was told, Week 3 maybe, Week 4 probably. Let’s say nothing was going on, he had no other issues. There would’ve been a chance he would’ve started the season on the [53-man roster], would’ve gone on IR and would’ve come back Week 4. That obviously did not happen.”
Some believe Gilmore could be traded during the season, as he's a free agent after the year, but Rapoport doesn't see it.
“I’d say it’s possible, there’s just not a big window to do it,” he said. “Like, if you look at just the calendar, he’ll be back (two weeks) before the trade deadline. So, theoretically, somebody would have to say, ‘I trust enough in what I’ve seen in one game or two games to trade for him.’”
Rapoport added: “I would never rule anything out with the Patriots, but they’d have to have a really good replacement for him to do that mid-season and not have it derail everything.”
