In a surprise move on Wednesday morning, the Patriots parted ways with star cornerback Stephon Gilmore. So should the Bears kick the tires to see if he’d want to come to Chicago?
On paper it’s a good idea. The Bears defense has played pretty well over the first quarter of the season, but if you had to pick a weak point it would probably be in the secondary. Young DBs Duke Shelley and Kindle Vildor have made some splash plays early on, but opposing QBs have also picked on them at times. Bringing in a guy like Gilmore could shore up that unit, allowing Desai to start a competition between Vildor and Shelley at nickel corner.
The problem is, the Bears likely can’t afford Gilmore’s services. He’s the 2019 Defensive Player of the Year and earned First-Team All-Pro honors in 2018 and ‘19. And lots of teams have issues in their secondaries, so the bidding for Gilmore should be high. According to Spotrac, the Bears have just over $2.1 million available in cap space this year. It’s hard to imagine Gilmore signing for less than that, so Ryan Pace would likely have to do some additional cap finagling before bringing a player of Gilmore’s caliber into Halas Hall.
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Initial reports say Gilmore and the Patriots parted ways because they couldn’t come to terms on a contract extension. In addition, Gilmore started the season on the PUP list with a quad injury. He will become a free agent at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.