Trading Stephon Gilmore in the middle of a 2-4 season would likely indicate one thing for the New England Patriots — a future-orientated approach.
Rumors have been floating recently that Gilmore will potentially get sent out to a different team before the trade deadline on Nov. 3. He’s the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and is coming off back-to-back First-Team All-Pro nods and Pro Bowl selections. Gilmore is the real deal and he’s what keeps the Patriots’ secondary at an elite level consistently.
On Wednesday morning, Bill Belichick told reporters that he hasn’t heard anything about these trade rumors. A lot of the rumors stemmed from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, who walked back the speculation Wednesday on WEEI’s ‘The Greg Hill Show’.
“I’ve heard the rumors with Stephon Gilmore, probably like a lot of people, but I haven’t heard them recently,” Rapoport said, transcribed by WEEI. “I know teams called the Patriots in March. I know there was some discussion when Gilmore wanted a new contract, that was before the season.”
I just haven’t heard of anything recent. So it’s possible these rumors are kind of old. Now, the Patriots’ record is what it is. Gilmore is still one of the best players in football. He’s due a huge new contract after the season. So if you are the Patriots and you decide, all right this is probably more of a rebuilding year than we wanted it would made sense to trade him if he was not part of your future. I also know the Patriots rarely give third contracts. So that would also make sense. I just haven’t gotten anything that anything is imminent on Stephon Gilmore.”
Gilmore is set to have a $17.1 million cap hit in 2021, after signing an enormous five-year, $65 million contract. The Patriots have J.C. Jackson (24), Jason McCourty (32), Jonathan Jones (27) and Joejuan Williams (22) to take Gilmore’s (30) place if he departed.
It’s very possible Gilmore finishes out the season at minimum, but Rapoport provides very valuable context about his future.
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