When Stephon Gilmore joined the New England Patriots, everything changed — largely because most things stayed the same from year to year.
Gilmore had been playing at a Pro Bowl level while with the Buffalo Bills, but he elevated his game to new heights under Bill Belichick and won the Defensive Player of the Year in 2020. Gilmore has been thrilled to play in the same defensive system with the same defensive head coach for the last three years. That’s what has helped him make the jump: consistency. He didn’t have that in Buffalo, where there was too much turnover of staff and ideas.
“In Buffalo, I don’t think I ever beat New England when I was there,” Gilmore said on Sunday’s episode of the “Double Coverage Podcast”, hosted by Patriots defensive backs (and twins) Devin and Jason McCourty. “I’m like, ‘what are those guys doing that’s different?’ On the other end, I’m going against (Julian) Edelman, (Brandon) LaFell, Tom (Brady), it’s different from seeing it on the other side. I think, me in Buffalo, the first five years, I had four different defensive coordinators, three different head coaches, so I was kind of trying to learn each and every year. So once I got to New England, I got some consistency, the same guys around, same coaches. I feel like that’s when my game took off more.”
Gilmore has dealt with three different defensive coordinators over the last three years, with Matt Patricia in 2017, Brian Flores in 2018 (as the de-facto) and an unidentified defensive coordinator in 2019. Still, Belichick’s vision wins out, even with the coordinator turnover. And that’s what Gilmore has seen as the biggest difference-maker during his career.
