I Could Watch a Mic'd Up Stephon Gilmore Cover Receivers and Ask for Beef Jerky All Day

When the Patriots shocked the world by going way off their usual Free Agent period script by aggressively going after one of the biggest names on the market and landing Stephon Gilmore, I naturally hoped the huge gamble would work out. That was a lot of money to commit to one side of one position and the signing was fraught with peril. But never in my wildest, bourbon-soaked fever dreams did I ever expect he’d be in the conversation as the best free agent signing they’ve ever made. But he is. Right up there with Mike Vrabel and Rodney Harrison. And those are names I don’t just bring up casually.

I mean, just look at that coverage. That is simply not supposed to happen in Bill Polian’s over-officiated utopia. Jamming guys off the line. Flipping his hips to mirror theirs. Giving them no room to operate. Timing his hits to knock the ball loose a millisecond after it arrives. And then at the 0:45 mark, there’s that play I mentioned in the Knee Jerk Reactions to the game, where he showed Man, then dropped back into Zone, completely pantsing Daniel Jones for the interception.

Appreciate this. This is playing defensive back at a level you rarely get to see any athlete perform at. With all due respect to Asante Samuel, Aqib Talib and one year of Darrelle Revis, we haven’t seen a game this complete since probably Ty Law. This is practically like 1999-2000 Pedro, in that we’re watching a guy dominate a position in a way that was supposed to have gone have gone extinct. And if there was a video channel available of nothing but focusing on Gilmore’s 30-40 coverage snaps a game, I’d pay to subscribe to it, no questions asked.

Now, for the love of God, somebody get this man some beef jerky. He’s earned it.