The Defensive Player of the Year, Stephon Gilmore, was the most dominant player for the New England Patriots in 2019.
He led the team with six interceptions, two returned for touchdowns, while earning First-Team All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl nod. He’s widely recognized as the best cornerback in the NFL right now and his uncanny ability to blanket opposing receivers gives Bill Belichick an insane amount of flexibility on defense.
Pro Football Focus put together a list of the best players in 2019 and Gilmore was the highest-graded Patriot on the list. Here’s what PFF had to say about the lockdown corner was ranked as the No. 22 best player.
For the majority of the season, Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore was a true shutdown cornerback for their defense. He won the AP’s Defensive Player of the Year, and while PFF went in a different direction for that award, there is little doubt he had an excellent season. Gilmore allowed a passer rating of just 48.0 when targeted and a completion percentage under 50%. The only real negative on his season was struggling to contain DeVante Parker against Miami in Week 17, where he gave up the only 100-yard receiving performance of his season.
The three highest graded players were San Francisco 49ers’ George Kittle, Los Angeles Rams’ Aaron Donald and Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson. New England had three additional players on the list with Kyle Van Noy (59), Devin McCourty (84) and Joe Thuney (91).