Should the Raiders be in on Stephon Gilmore?

Early Wednesday morning, ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the news that the New England Patriots are planning to release CB Stephon Gilmore. The hope for New England is they are able to find a trade partner before the release becomes official at 4:30 p.m. EST.

With three secondary players going down against the Chargers, should the Raiders consider a trade for the 2019 Defensive Player of the Year?

The Raiders secondary took a huge hit Monday night when CB Trayvon Mullen was seen being carted off the field. Jon Gruden said after Monday’s loss to the Chargers that Trayvon Mullen had a foot injury and that it looks to be a serious long-term injury. Aside from Mullen, CBs Damon Arnette and Nate Hobbs were both knocked out of the game as well.

Should the Raiders look into the 2019 Defensive Player of the Year?

Before any trade would become official, any potential team will need to know how healthy the now 31-year-old Gilmore is. The star corner missed the last two games of the 2020 season with a partially torn quad. The injury required him to have offseason surgery and this could be a reason the Patriots decided not to pay Gilmore, who is looking for a salary bump.

The Raiders currently have $4.6M in cap space, and with Gilmore looking to be one of the league’s highest paid players immediately, the Raiders will have to figure out how they can pay him. One option teams have done in the past is to carry a player’s cap hits into future years.

Another major question that would need to be answered before a trade could be made is if Stephon Gilmore can fit into the Gus Bradley Cover 3 scheme?

A Cover 3 scheme is a zone-heavy scheme, however, the base shell that Bradley plays has seen the Raiders running a ton of Cover 1 Robber, which is a man-to-man play out of the Cover 3 shell.

Aside from the Cover 3 play, the Cover 1 Robber is the second most run play this year for the Raiders, and with Gilmore being known as a man-to-man corner, this scheme will be a good fit for him. Cover 3 is a very adaptable defense for anyone, and Gilmore would be playing aside PFF’s number one corner in Casey Hayward.