Patriots: Stephon Gilmore leaves Bill Belichick out of goodbye letter

Was it only a matter of time until the New England Patriots made an earth-shattering roster move amid their 1-3 start?

It’s tough to say. Bill Belichick is not one to shy away from sending a message to his team. Look no further than the Cam Newton release.

Whatever the case, it wasn’t enough to stop Belichick from cutting bait with his most decorated defensive player, Stephon Gilmore.

The initial plan was to release Gilmore, and it looked for a while that it was going to be made official before the end of Wednesday. However, the Panthers swooped in and made a late trade offer for the star cornerback and ultimately landed him in exchange for a 2023 sixth-round pick.

Gilmore’s tenure in New England is officially over, and it’s clear this isn’t how fans envisioned the marriage ending.

Does Gilmore feel the same way? We may never know, but it speaks volumes that he left Belichick out — at least by name — of his goodbye letter to the fan base.

Bill Belichick was nowhere to be found in Stephon Gilmore’s goodbye letter to Patriots fans.

Notice how Gilmore wrote personal goodbyes to the Patriots’ fan base, owner Robert Kraft, the organization as a whole AND his teammates. Nothing for Belichick (other than “the coaches”). We hate to make something out of nothing, but we can’t be the only ones who were taken aback by Gilmore’s lack of gratitude for his longtime head coach, right?

After all, wasn’t it Belichick who pushed to sign Gilmore when he was an unrestricted free agent back in 2017? While the star DB was an impact player in Buffalo, he did’t become a household name until his big-money move to New England, where he was a two-time All-Pro and the Defensive Player of the Year in 2019.

Call us crazy, but it seems like Gilmore intentionally refrained from mentioning Belichick by name in his goodbye letter. He had to be sending a message to Belichick by listing “coaches,” after “Mr. Kraft.” This divorce was too sudden for this to merely be a coincidence.

After all, nearly every report indicated that Gilmore, despite sitting out of mandatory minicamp, enjoyed being a Patriot and wanted to sign a new extension to potentially finish his career with the franchise.

The only problem? Gilmore wanted a raise (or a new deal) before he returned to the field following offseason quad surgery. Now that he’s been traded, however, Gilmore seems willing to play without immediate or long-term financial security, so it’s not all about the money.

As his goodbye letter indicates, a lot of it could be about sticking it to Belichick, who went on the biggest free agent spending spree of his career this past offseason instead of using the Pats’ ample cap space to extend Gilmore.

This is just further evidence that Belichick, even at this stage of his career, doesn’t mind burning bridges with star players.

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