Judon makes his presence felt in return from hold-in
The Patriots clearly needed some help at cornerback this offseason, and they wound up finding it in the form of first-round pick Christian Gonzalez. Before that, though, Bill Belichick apparently seriously considered quite the interesting reunion.
According to Jeff Howe of The Athletic, the Patriots were one of the two teams that showed the most interest in acquiring Stephon Gilmore from the Colts via trade. Obviously that reunion never came to fruition, and Gilmore instead ended up with the Cowboys, the other of those two most interested teams.
Gilmore spent four highly productive seasons in New England from 2017-2020, helping the Patriots win a Super Bowl in 2018 and earning NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2019.
Gilmore's 2020 season ended with a partially torn quad in Week 15, and a combination of that lingering injury and a contract dispute eventually led to the Patriots trading him to the Panthers in Oct. 2021 in exchange for a 2023 sixth-round pick (which the Pats used to draft wide receiver Kayshon Boutte).
Gilmore played eight games for Carolina during that 2021 season before moving on to Indianapolis and playing 16 games in 2022.
Given that things didn't seem to end on the best of terms for Gilmore in Foxboro, it would have been a little surprising to see Belichick trade for him. It wouldn't have been unprecedented, though. Let's not forget that Belichick brought Malcolm Butler back last offseason, and Butler's exit after being benched in Super Bowl 52 was one of the most controversial, and still one of the most discussed, in recent memory.
Gilmore will turn 33 in September and clearly is no longer the player he was during his prime years with the Patriots, but he did show last season that there's at least something left in the tank. The Cowboys wound up getting him from the Colts for a fifth-round pick.
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