Gilmore's Still Got More

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   Stephon Gilmore's career looked like it was coming to an end back in 2021. After winning the Super Bowl with the Patriots in 2018 and then winning Defensive Player of the Year in 2019, he finished 2020 with a quadriceps injury and opened the 2021 season on the Physically Unable to Perform list. By October of that year, the 31 year old defensive back was traded to the Carolina Panthers for a sixth round draft pick (which was later used to draft Kayshon Boutte). 

  Cornerback careers are notorious for coming to sudden ends at a certain age, especially after lower body injuries. The speed that is essential to their position doesn't always fully return, and without the ability to keep up with younger receivers, their drop off is usually pretty steep. Most players in Gilmore's position would quietly fade out of the league within a year or two of that injury and subsequent trade.

  Instead, Gilmore beat the odds. He recovered from his quad injury and in the three years since then, he has carved out a nice little niche in this league as a journeyman, veteran cornerback. After that 2021 season with the Panthers, he has made stops with the Colts, the Cowboys and the Vikings and been a major contributor to their success during his brief tenure on each team. Though his speed and agility are not what they used to be, he has proven to be scheme-flexible and continues to make plays with his high football IQ and ability to anticipate what offenses are going to do before they do it. 

  September will mark Gilmore's 35th birthday, making him one of the oldest active defensive backs in the league. Very few players have managed to be successful at this position at that age, but the 48 games he has played in the last 3 years have shown that he still has a lot left to offer a team willing to sign him, and he is taking a very patient approach to free agency. Instead of being relegated to a backup role, he is still capable of being a starting cornerback in the NFL for the right team. If any team out there is looking for experienced help at cornerback, Stephon Gilmore should be one of the first people they call.


Photo Credit: Original Image by All-Pro Reels, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and edited under CC BY 2.0

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