The Minnesota Vikings Were Never Going to Land Stephon Gilmore
Early Wednesday afternoon, news broke that former All-Pro cornerback, Stephon Gilmore, was on his way out of New England. This in and of itself wasn’t entirely surprising as Gilmore and the Patriots had been in a contract dispute since this offseason. However, after being previously reported that he was being released and eyed by teams like the Green Bay Packers, it turned out the Carolina Panthers swung in at the very last moment with a trade package.
This trade package is where the real surprise comes in: a single sixth-round draft pick. On the surface, it seems like a very low price for a player of Gilmore’s caliber. Of course, every team would have been able to put forth a sixth-rounder and more to take on the CB, and it may bring forth the question: why did the Minnesota Vikings not put a package together?
There are a couple reasons that I can think of, but the main answer is painfully simple: cap space. The Vikings simply did not have the money to make a deal work and bring on Gilmore’s salary. For 2021, he is due to make $16.2 million, per Over the Cap. According to the same site, the Vikings have just over $4 million of their salary cap left to work with. They would have been unable to even come close to a midnight hour deal unless New England was willing to eat most of Gilmore’s contract.
They weren’t, leaving a very limited number of teams that could have realistically made an offer. The Panthers, however, were one of the few teams able to do so with their whopping $19.2 million in space, second-most in the NFL behind only Jacksonville.
Of course, the elephant in the room for the Vikings is Kirk Cousins’ massive contract, and I suppose you could put some blame on that for the Vikings not having space. However, it probably isn’t worth the time. As we enter week five, cap space is rarely found for any team, especially among contending teams which Gilmore would have wanted to play for. In fact, only nine teams have $10+ million in cap remaining.
As much as adding Gilmore would have brought the Minnesota Vikings into national headlines this week, I’m not sure I would have been super excited about it, anyway. This week the Vikings have found themselves in a bit of a CB shortage as Bashaud Breeland is recovering from a non-COVID illness while both Cam Dantzler and Harrison Hand are on the COVID list. However, Gilmore wouldn’t have helped at all in week six as he is still on the PUP list.
After this week, another veteran cornerback expecting playing time would have just created an even larger logjam at an already full position. Cam Dantzler finally showed flashes of his 2020 self last week against Cleveland, and he definitely should find himself earning playing time when he gets off the COVID list. It’s also worth remembering how frustrated he seemed after being shoved down the depth chart all the way to CB6 to begin the year. If you remember, after being relegated to a special teams role, Dantzler took to Twitter to express his frustrations.
Gilmore may prove to be a positive addition to the Carolina Panthers, but nothing is certain for a 31-year-old cornerback coming off of an injury. Additionally, despite Minnesota’s lack of depth this week, if the Vikings can’t beat a Lions team that is also facing a bunch of injuries, there are bigger problems at hand than what Gilmore can fix. To the fans of the Purple and Gold, don’t spend your time stressing about this trade. In the words of a certain NFC North quarterback, let’s all just R-E-L-A-X, and see if the Vikings can get back on track this Sunday. Besides, at least Gilmore didn’t end up in Green Bay.