East Rumors: Gilmore, Eagles, Matthews

Stephon Gilmore delivered his finest statistical season during what amounted to his contract year in 2016, but the top Bills cornerback didn’t receive rave reviews from the analytics community. At least, not compared to the 2015 season, when Pro Football Focus viewed him as a top-20 corner. But Gilmore expected to be rewarded like a top-flight cover man, with Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com noting he will likely receive the largest contract among this year’s UFA corners.

Gilmore is seeking a deal north of Janoris Jenkins‘ five-year, $62.5MM contract that came with $29MM guaranteed. Gilmore comes in at No. 14 on PFR’s top 50 free agents list, behind other corners A.J. Bouye and Logan Ryan, whom La Canfora also expects to do very well on the market. The Bears are planning to aggressively pursue cornerback help, per La Canfora, who connects them to Gilmore. The Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs made the same connection last week.

Here’s a look at the latest from the AFC and NFC East:

• Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter) “believes” the Eagles will be open to trading Jordan Matthews if they receive a solid offer. Same goes for quarterback Chase Daniel, who is said to be drawing trade interest. Matthews, 25 in July, was a second-round pick in 2014 under the Chip Kelly administration. Last year, he had 73 catches for 804 yards and three touchdowns, a step back from 2015 when he had 85 catches, 997 yards, and eight scores.
• The Patriots believe someone is going to make LeGarrette Blount an offer they won’t match, Robinson tweets. With that in mind, Robinson believes they are preparing for his departure. Blount stands as one of the better running backs available in free agency, but other big names will be out there including Adrian Peterson, Eddie Lacy, and Jamaal Charles.
• Redskins UFA defensive end Chris Baker expects to receive an offer from the team by Tuesday.

Sam Robinson contributed to this report.