Just days after meeting with the Colts, cornerback Stephon Gilmore has decided to sign there. He is joining Indianapolis, as reported by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero (Twitter link). 
ESPN’s Adam Schefter adds (on Twitter) that the deal is two years in length, and is worth $23MM, with $14MM guaranteed. It brings an end to a surprisingly lengthy free agent wait for the 31-year-old, given his pedigree. While he likely won’t reach the heights seen from the earlier parts of his All-Pro career, he demonstrated an ability to remain productive this past season.
Gilmore spent the first five seasons of his career with the Bills, but is most well-known for his time in New England. It was there that he earned four of his five Pro Bowls, his lone Super Bowl title and the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2019. However, his Patriots tenure came to an end in October when he was traded to the Panthers.
While his time as a Panther was still productive – he compiled two interceptions and a pair of pass deflections in eight games – the team turned its attention to re-signing fellow corner Donte Jackson this offseason. He, along with 2021 first-rounder Jaycee Horn and midseason acquisition C.J. Henderson will head their depth chart moving forward.
Gilmore met with a number of teams as the offseason progressed. The list of interested clubs included the Raiders, Chiefs, Rams and, most significantly, Colts. This signing represents another notable defensive addition, something general manager Chris Ballard recently signalled could be coming. Now, Gilmore will help replace Rock Ya-Sin, whom the team traded away to add Yannick Ngakoue. Those two, coupled with incumbents Darius Leonard and DeForest Buckner, should give the Colts an improved defense in 2022, as the look to contend in a highly-competitive AFC.
Defense is loaded, Taylor is a stud, Matt Ryan instead of Wentz, should be an interesting year in Indy.
They’re still the Colts. They’ll blow it, then give a way to blame the Patriots.
Gilmore will drop a game ending int against the Pats and conspiracies of patriot meddling will begin
Ryan is garbage – old , unreliable. So is Gilmore. Love Taylor and Pitman but unimpressed with Ryan or Gilmore. I think it’s Indy’s division to lose but it’s a weak division. In the playoffs … Ryan will not beat the likes of Mahomes, Hubert , Burrow Allen or Jackson … just being real.
Just like foles would never beat Manning? Team game man.
Brady* sheesh.
Foles over Manning is an exception to the rule. I’ll give you that and I get the team game … but Indy would have to go through 2 or 3 of those guys in the AFC and that isn’t happening. Not with Ryan. The AFC is too good. Pro Bowl means nothing on Gilmore .. yeah I am probably not giving him enough credit as he is better than average but his best days are behind him …
Ryan is hardly garbage and he’s an upgrade over Wentz. Gilmore isn’t old or unreliable. He just made the Pro Bowl for crying out loud lol. I’m not saying either of them are amazing but they are better than you think.
31 is no spring chicken in the Not For Long league. Hopefully Gilmore will pay off , I just don’t see it. Just my opinion. Indy will win division but that will be it.
Herbert has to get there first.
Okay good. Anything but the Rams. Sick and tired of everyone signing with the Rams.
Guess all the Rams fans who proclaimed “he’ll take less money to chase a ring and sign to play with his friends” were dead wrong…he signed with the team who gave him the best contract….after all, as I said…its always about the money.
Buckner Leonard Ngakore Gilmore that’s a nice defence
Ryan Taylor Pitman Nelson Smith that’s a nice offence.
Indy looking pretty good on paper.
They still have a good amount of cap space and have 7 draft picks in the draft.
They do this every year, and every year it feels like the Colts will finally conquer their misfortunes, but something always seems to happen. It’s not always their fault-several close games last year they lost due to a bad call or just blind luck-but every year the Colts manage to put together a dangerous team and fall short of their goals. Sooner or later they have to have a ball bounce their way; at least, that’s what it feels like.
The only move that I didn’t like so far this year was trading away Rock Ya-Sin for Ngakoue. Ngakoue is a bit one sided as an edge defender, and Ya-Sin was young and expected to be a long term player at corner, especially after having a great year last season. The Colts I expect are banking on Gus Bradley being able to return Ngakoue to form, since Ngakoue excelled in Bradley’s scheme his rookie year.
Don’t blame things on bad calls. Every team in the league is subject to bad calls throughout a season. This happens at all times through out all games … the ones that get the attention are late in the games. Bad calls in the 2nd quarter are just as costly. But every team has this happen.
I didn’t say that the Colts were the only team to have that happen, but they seem to have a few more than most of the others, just from my watching. I’m not a Colts fan, that’s just my personal perception. It could be wrong, I know. Bad calls also are not the only form of bad luck, for the record, and I was just noting that they seem to have bad luck in general-injuries, freak plays, bad bounces, and yes, bad calls.
It’s one thing to blame bad calls for everything negative, but it’s another to simply pretend that they never happen or have zero impact or shouldn’t be considered. That taboo needs to go (obviously for ALL teams). Most fans get upset and dismiss officiating every single time it’s brought up. I’m not saying that we should blame bad calls entirely for a team’s shortcomings, but it’s beyond time that we start holding the officials accountable. We’ve been pretending that the calls have no bearing on a game for too long, and the officiating has gotten noticeably worse. They don’t deserve a constant free pass. Teams need to be good enough to overcome, I fully believe that. But it’s high time we quit pretending bad calls don’t happen, and worse, excuse them and the officials by blaming the teams every single time instead of a league who refuses to do anything about it.