Throughout their playoff drought in the early 2000s that lasted until 2017, the Buffalo Bills had a lot go wrong for them. They couldn’t seem to draft well, develop the players on the roster, or consistently win. Luckily, things have turned around since 2017 and now the Bills are among the best teams in the league.
However, Bills fans could create a long list of things that went wrong for the team. One factor to include is that there would be players that weren’t as productive with the Bills, but then would go somewhere else and become one of the best players in the league. One of those players was cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who was drafted by the Bills in 2012.
Drafted out of South Carolina, Gilmore was brought in to be Buffalo’s shutdown cornerback and while he did play five seasons with the Bills, the team was entering the Sean McDermott era as Gilmore’s contract was expiring.
Despite Gilmore recording 14 interceptions in five seasons in Buffalo, Gilmore wasn’t brought back and he moved on to sign with the New England Patriots, where he became the best corner in football for a few seasons.
Bills fans are reminded of mistake of letting Stephon Gilmore leave for Patriots
David Kenyon from Bleacher Report put together a list of ranking the “15 best free-agent signings of the last decade” and the Patriots signing Gilmore was ranked at No. 4.
"In his second year of a five-season contract, Gilmore was a first-team All-Pro. He repeated the honor in 2019, a campaign in which he paced the NFL in both interceptions (six) and pass defenses (20) and became the AP Defensive Player of the Year. Gilmore also snared two interceptions in the 2018 postseason, including one in Super Bowl LIII when the Pats defeated the Rams." said Kenyon.
Gilmore had the signs of being a solid corner in the NFL when he was with the Bills, but he became arguably the best defensive player in the league for a 2-3 year stretch. The Bills not only lost out on his production during his prime, but they had to play against him twice a year as the Patriots were still beating Buffalo year-in and year-out.
In four years with the Pats, Gilmore had 11 interceptions and was a corner that put fear into opposing offenses. He quickly adjusted to the route being run against him, knew how to make up for lost steps, and he was great at tracking the ball down while it was in the air. The Bills missed out big time on Gilmore.
With free agency coming up here very soon, the Bills are set to lose a good amount of players and the last thing that they need is someone leaving who will just excel somewhere else.