It appears Stephon Gilmore’s knee injury is more complicated than we thought

Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore’s knee injury sounds a lot more complicated than we were led to believe.

We’ll probably never know for sure if the New England Patriots were keen on trading cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who suffered a knee injury in the blowout loss to San Francisco back in Week 5, which came a little more than a week before the deadline.

At the time, there were conflicting reports about whether or not the Patriots were shopping Gilmore, and the follow-ups suggested that their alleged asking price — a first-round pick and a player — (on top of the injury) might have put the nail in the coffin in terms of their chances of dealing him.

As far as the injury is concerned, Gilmore has missed the Patriots’ last three games and his status for their Week 11 showdown against Houston is very much up in the air as he was listed as a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice.

It goes without saying that Gilmore’s return to full strength has taken longer than expected, and head coach Bill Belichick’s latest comments about his decision to not place him on injured reserve implies that his injury is a lot more complicated than we were led to believe.

Given that the All-Pro corner has been sidelined for three weeks, the Patriots could’ve placed him on injured reserve, which would’ve cleared up a roster spot and seen him eligible to be activated in time for the Texans game. Doing so also would have given Belichick tremendous flexibility (21 days) as it pertains to activating him to the 53-man roster after designating him for return. Instead, however, he’s been eating up a valuable roster spot that could’ve been given to somebody available to contribute.

These quotes suggest that the Patriots still don’t know the severity of Gilmore’s injury, and that’s a cause for concern considering how much time he’s missed and the fact he re-aggravated it on a strange-looking collision at practice. Is it a muscular issue or a nagging contusion that’s taking forever to heal? These are important details.

We obviously hope Gilmore returns to the field soon because the Patriots are clearly better when he’s lined up outside, but at this stage in his recovery process, we simply have zero idea when that will be.

Given the obscurity surrounding the situation, fans in New England should probably temper expectations as it pertains to the 30-year-old superstar being available for Sunday’s road clash vs the Texans.

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