HOW DID PATS LOSE GILMORE FOR A SIXTH-ROUND PICK?
FOXBORO — It’s all connected.
The contract, the injury, the terse negotiations that led to a salary advance 13 months ago, the hardball the Patriots have played ever since and the toll that time took on player and front office during New England’s most high-profile contract dispute in a decade.
There is no simple explanation for why the Pats exchanged Stephon Gilmore, their best player over the past three seasons, for a sixth-round pick Wednesday. In a vacuum, he’s worth more. But the market he faced, undermined by his injury and contract demands and shrunk by the Patriots’ high asking practice, was no vacuum.
Worth was supposedly the sticking point for Gilmore, who claimed he only wanted what he deserved. Turns out, that meant more than money.
According to reports, Gilmore will play out the final year of his contract in Carolina on a prorated $7 million base salary; a fraction of his financial worth. He refused to do so in New England, where it was known he wanted a longer deal. An extension must have represented more to him; perhaps respect or job security or a victory over a front office that believed it could strongarm him.
The Patriots tried, only offering to advance a portion of his 2021 base salary in September 2020. After a trying negotiation, Gilmore, then the reigning Defensive Player of the Year playing for a middling team in transition, agreed. Both sides understood they were kicking the can down the road. Soon enough, the Pats tried to trade Gilmore, but their ideal market never developed, as Gilmore hurt his knee shortly before the trade deadline and ultimately missed three games.
Then, the trade market fell apart thanks to another injury.
Once Gilmore partially tore his quad last December, interested front offices grew hesitant to acquire a player heading into his age-31 season with long-term contract demands and injury concerns. Gilmore was great, but he wasn’t godly. Those teams had to wait. Meanwhile, the Patriots and Gilmore chose to wait.
All of the initial reporting surrounding Gilmore’s injury indicated he should be available for training camp. Gilmore held out of a mandatory minicamp, then told NFL reporter Josina Anderson in July he could be ready, if needed. He’d already been running on the quad.
He’s fully healthy now, according to the NFL Network. The Patriots stared Gilmore down anyway, keeping him on the Physically Unable to Perform list from mid-July through Wednesday. He stared right back.
Meanwhile, the team’s cap space dwindled, and future calculations put their $2.39 million in cap room at close to zero by the end of the season, with large per-game roster bonuses scheduled to be owed to several players on the roster. The Pats would also have no money for in-season expenditures, like signing free-agent linebacker Jamie Collins an hour after shipping Gilmore out. The same team that doled out more than $160 million in guaranteed money during the offseason suddenly had to make a move.
So was adding Collins really the motivation behind unloading Gilmore? No, but again, it’s all connected.
So was the Patriots’ sterling defensive performance against Tom Brady’s Buccaneers last weekend. Their remaining corners — J.C. Jackson, Jalen Mills and Jonathan Jones — shadowed three Pro Bowl wideouts in man-to-man for most of the night and held the Bucs to 19 points. Belichick waxed poetic about it Wednesday, by Belichickian standards. “Overall, we’ve played the passing game fairly well this year and played the best passing game in the league last week and played that competitively,” he said, “so I’d say there are other areas on the team that are maybe more, again, everything can be improved. But I’d say there are other areas that can improve more than that group.”
Despite their secondary’s success, the Patriots have stumbled to a 1-3 start since stashing Gilmore on the PUP list, where he must remain until at least Week 7. They’re risking an even longer slide now, just one injury separating them from having to start either Joejuan Williams or fifth-round rookie Shaun Wade, both healthy scratches against the Bucs. These were the new stakes of the front office’s staredown with Gilmore, whom they nearly lost for nothing.
But instead ESPN, perhaps with a little nudge from Foxboro, reported early Wednesday morning that Gilmore would be released; news that incentivized potential trade partners to file last-minute offers to New England. Carolina called, and the deal was done. The staredown was over.
Gilmore hadn’t blinked, and was no worse for it. For their stubbornness, the Pats received meager financial flexibility, instead of a high draft pick or another year or two of starting-caliber cornerback play. Not to mention the boost Gilmore’s return would have provided their defense starting in Week 7. The Patriots canceled their own cavalry. The great Paul Brown, a man Belichick once called the father of pro football, once said: When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say less.
Asked four times about Gilmore’s situation during his press conference Wednesday, Belichick said less.