Pats Lock Up Gilmore, Harmon

The 2017 NFL season has begun! The long path to the start of the season in underway! Rejoice!

As reported this morning, the Pats have signed Stephon Gilmore and re-signed Duron Harmon in the opening salvo of the free agency period. Both moves are surprising, not that being surprised should be surprising during this time of year.

As @MikeGarafolo said, Patriots agree with safety Duron Harmon to return on 4-year deal with max value of $20 million.

— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) March 9, 2017

I assumed Harmon was gone. The Pats have paid their other two top safeties, Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung, so I assumed Harmon would be the third safety casualty. Instead, the ponied up four years, $20 million for Harmon, which tells us how valuable the view that role in their defense now. Harmon usually plays only about half the snaps, but offers important flexibility to the defense. More remarkable is that they retained him despite him being somewhat of a specialist in the deep part of the field. We’ve never really even seen him play near the line of scrimmage, much less in man coverage.

Still, for a defense that saw what it was like to get beat over and over just a few short years ago, Harmon brings a level of continuity on the back end that is vital. Especially because it looks like there’s going to be some turnover at cornerback.

Patriots are giving former Bills CB Stephon Gilmore a five-year, $65 million deal that includes $40 million guaranteed, per source.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 9, 2017

This one blows my mind. We’ll probably need to wait and see what happens with Malcolm Butler, but for a team that has never really splurged on free agents, much less cornerbacks, the Pats just blew any preconceived notions out of the water. Yes, they have the cap space, but I just can’t believe they’d make this kind of investment in an external player with so many internal players still dangling in the wind.

There’s a few things to consider…

• Maybe they just really, really love Gilmore and think he’s better than either Butler or Logan Ryan. For that amount of money they better love him.
• Maybe Butler is about to get traded once he signs his RFA contract. The Pats would still be in good shape at cornerback.
• Maybe they see Butler and Gilmore playing together, giving them perhaps the best secondary in the league. With Harmon back it’s certainly hard to argue against.

Gilmore certainly fits the mold and hopefully he can match the versatile coverage abilities and solid tackling that Butler and Ryan have demonstrated over the last two seasons. We’ve gotten used to watching solid corner play and if Gilmore has any brainfarts like he did against the Pats and Chris Hogan last year, followed by a lack of effort, there isn’t going to be much patience for him. If he thinks he just got paid and can coast now he’ll be on the street quicker than he was signed.

Belichick had this to say about Gilmore last season:

“Gilmore has had a real good year. I think that he’s improved a lot over the course of the season. They’ve gotten very productive play from him.”

Again, we’ll just have to wait and see with everything being so fluid at the moment, but there’s no doubt that free agency has started and the Pats are jumping in with both feet.