Why Stephon Gilmore Is A Need For The Bills

Why Stephon Gilmore Is A Need For The Bills

It may be time to open up the checkbooks.

With OTAs starting today, the Buffalo Bills top corner will not be in attendance. Per The Buffalo News, Stephon Gilmore will not report due to ongoing talks with the team regarding a long-term contract.

The team’s No. 1 corner is entering the final year of his rookie contract. Gilmore will still be training elsewhere, but you have to think this isn’t the start the Bills were hoping for in 2016.

Cornerbacks are starting to make top defensive player money. Josh Norman inked a five-year, $75 million contract with the Washington Redskins, Janoris Jenkins left the Rams for a five-year, $62.5 million deal with the New York Giants, and Darrelle Revis signed a five-year $70 million deal with the Jets.

It’s becoming important to have a top pass rusher and a top corner on every defense. It seems like the strategy most teams build around. Linebackers are a dime a dozen and most safeties are converted cornerbacks. Overpaying for a cornerback is the new norm in this time’s society.

“I definitely would as long as it’s fair,” Gilmore told The Buffalo News. “I love Buffalo. They gave me my first opportunity to play in the National Football League. I think we have a lot of great talent, a lot of guys in the locker room that I love like my little brothers. But right now, it’s a business. It’s not personal. You believe in yourself and see if you can meet.”

Gilmore plays an important role in Rex Ryan’s defense. The defensive scheme gameplans a ton of man to man coverage. Gilmore brings the physicality needed to succeed in Ryan’s scheme.  Ryan stated in his opening press conference with the Bills that the lack of skill at the cornerback position in his 2014 Jets team forced him to rely on a ton of zone coverage from his linebackers. The result wasn’t pretty and led to Ryan’s defense being mediocre in 2014.

“I know who I am and nobody can tell me I’m not,” Gilmore said in March. “If you really watch the film, really study the film and not go off hype and people who talk more than what I do, just go off the film and it’ll show you that.”

Gilmore currently makes top-10 cornerback money at $11 million due for this year. You have to think the Bills want to make it top-6 player money for the next contract. Is that what Gilmore wants? I guess we will just need to wait and see.