Trades between two teams in major sports are always looked at in a vacuum. One side has to win the trade. The other has to lose. But sometimes, it’s not that simple. The team and player(s) involved in the deal could benefit from a change in scenery. That appears to be the case in the blockbuster trade between the Colts and Cowboys, which sent Stephon Gilmore to Dallas, well, at least according to Colts GM Chris Ballard.
“I think it was good for both of us,” Ballard said of the trade during Friday’s pre-draft news conference via NFL.com. “He’s just at a point in his career that he’s at the end of his career. I thought he was a decent fit for the defense. But a chance to get a pick for him in the last year of his deal. Shed a little bit of the contract money off. I thought was good for both of us to send him to Dallas, which is a good spot and defensively fit for him. That kind of went into it.”
Indianapolis acquired a 2023 fifth-round pick in exchange for Gilmore. On the surface, it appears to be a win-win trade for two teams trending in opposite directions.
While Gilmore is not the cornerback he once was, the 33-year-old could still be a valuable contributor for a team with Super Bowl aspirations, like Dallas. Gilmore was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2019 and is a two-time First-Team All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowler.
While 2022 was a down season for Indianapolis, it wasn’t for Gilmore. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the ninth-best cornerback last season, as he maintained an 81.1 coverage grade. Playing in 16 games in 2022, Gilmore had a team-leading 11 passes defended, with 66 tackles and two interceptions. If he could replicate that production, or something similar to it, he and Travon Diggs could be one of the more feared cornerback tandems in the NFL.
[NFL.com]
