NFL Rumors: Why Teams Are ‘Reluctant’ To Trade For Stephon Gilmore

The Stephon Gilmore situation is a complicated one, to say the least.

The Patriots have a history of parting ways with players a year too early as opposed to a year too late. Gilmore potentially could carry out this trend in New England, as he’s on an expiring contract and turns 31 in late September.

Finding a satisfactory deal for Gilmore, however, might not be an easy task for Bill Belichick and Co. ESPN NFL insider Dan Graziano explained why during Monday’s edition of “Get Up.”

“It’s up in the air and has been all offseason,” Graziano said. “There were some that thought he could get traded in March around free agency. He was not. There are issues. Teams that are interested know that he’s not happy with the contract. So, you have to give up something to get him and you probably have to give him a new contract and that makes teams reluctant to part with the kind of value the Patriots are certainly wanting.

“It could go a number of different ways. They could end up trading him. They could end up sweetening his contract. They could end up moving on from J.C. Jackson instead. There are a lot of different ways the Patriots’ cornerback situation could shake out. Focus on Stephon Gilmore — if he’s not at the mandatory minicamp this week — sort of heightens the alarm bells in terms of whether they can count on him for this season.”

The alarm bells heightened Monday when Gilmore was a no-show for the Patriots’ first day of mandatory minicamp. Head coach Bill Belichick acknowledged the team is dealing with some travel delays, but it’s tough to imagine that issue is the source of Gilmore’s absence.