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Arguably the NFL’s best cornerback Tom Brady Jerseys 2019 , Gilmore returns for another season as the Patriots’ number one." Patriots AnalysisPatriots Player ProfilesPatriots Offseason CoverageNew England Patriots 2019 roster breakdown: #24 CB Stephon GilmoreNew,9commentsArguably the NFL’s best cornerback, Gilmore returns for another season as the Patriots’ number one.EDTShare this storyShare this on FacebookShare this on TwitterShareAll sharing optionsShareAll sharing options for:New England Patriots 2019 roster breakdown: #24 CB Stephon GilmoreTwitterFacebookRedditPocketFlipboardEmailPhoto by Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesThe New England Patriots, who will be off until training camp starts in late July, currently have 90 players on their active roster. However, only 53 of them will be able to survive the cutdowns on August 31 and ultimately make the team. Over the course of the summer, we will take a look at the players fighting for those spots to find out who has the best chances of helping the Patriots defend their Super Bowl title.Today, the series continues with one of the best defenders in all of football.Name: Stephon GilmorePosition: CornerbackJersey number: 24Age: 28Experience: 7Size: 6’1, 200 lbs.2018 review: Stephon Gilmore entered the second season of the five-year, $65 million contract that he signed with the Patriots during 2017’s free agency with high expectations. After all, he established himself as a true shutdown cornerback over the second half of the 2017 campaign. A reliable and durable defensive back with a knack for the big play, he regularly showed his abilities to cover the NFL’s best offensive weapons one-on-one.2018 was a continuation of that, and more. Gilmore appeared in all sixteen of the Patriots’ regular season contests and was on the field for a combined 1,014 of New England’s 1,043 defensive snaps (97.2%) — the most of all Patriots defenders and a clear improvement over his 77.0% playing time share a year earlier. What also improved was his performance as he became even more consistent as a coverage player than he already was in 2017.Gilmore proved himself a cornerstone of the Patriots’ defense and the club’s top cornerback from week one on. Looking more confident than during his first year in the system, the 28-year-old surrendered only 37 pass completions on 90 targets during the regular season for just 403 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. He also registered a sack, two forced fumbles Rob Gronkowski Jersey , and one recovery. In short: Gilmore was the playmaker he was paid to be.Playing some outstanding football as a press-man boundary defender also capable of guarding zones or playing from the slot, Gilmore finished the 2018 regular season as the highest-graded cornerback in the NFL by advanced analytics website Pro Football Focus. On top of it, he was also named a first-team All-Pro for the first time in his career, and showed why he very much belonged in the conversation of the best cornerbacks in the NFL right now.The playoffs were further confirmation of that: Gilmore rarely left the field during the Patriots’ three postseason games, and missed only three of his club’s combined 188 defensive snaps (98.4%). His durability was not his only strength: going against some of the best the league had to offer last season — from Keenan Allen to Sammy Watkins to Brandin Cooks — Gilmore was able to elevate his game even further.With the exception of a coverage breakdown against Allen in the divisional round and a long pass given up to Watkins in the AFC title game, Gilmore was essentially in lock-down mode all postseason long. Overall, he surrendered just 4 receptions on 16 targets for 133 yards. He did give up a touchdown, yes, but he also came away with two interceptions — the second of the which the game-clincher in Super Bowl 53. It doesn’t get much better than that.2019 preview: Entering the third year of his contract, Gilmore’s role is set in stone: he will again serve as New England’s number one cornerback and thus allow the Patriots to essentially remove one offensive player from the equation. Consequently, the two-time Pro Bowler will therefore rarely leave the field again and form the core of New England’s secondary alongside safeties Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung.Gilmore brings an impressive athletic skill set to the table and has shown the ability to function well within the Patriots’ secondary and its coverage schemes — whether they dictate him to play his speciality, man-to-man, or to line up in zone. Barring injury, Gilmore should therefore be expected to play more than 95% of New England’s defensive snaps yet again while oftentimes (but not exclusively) going against the most talented and physically imposing wide receivers the Patriots will face.Last year, Gilmore was up to this task and showed that he was capable of standing up to whichever challenge he faced. And if judged by the few open practices so far this spring, 2019 should be more of the same: the veteran cornerback will continue to be one of the NFL’s true shutdown cornerbacks and live up to his $9.17 million salary cap hit — a number that was slightly brought down earlier this offseason by converting parts of Gilmore’s salary to a signing bonus.The contractual change — the second within the last nine months — should not be seen as anything more than a business decision, though: Gilmore is still the Patriots’ best coverage player, and arguably also the best cornerback in all of football. Tom Brady thought it was ridiculous how many opposing fans there were at the Washington Redskins’ home stadium. Sam Darnold said his road game at Washington almost felt like a home game.The Redskins haven’t had much of a home-field advantage this season Womens Elandon Roberts Jersey , with an infusion of visiting fans and tens of thousands of empty seats each week. At 1-9 and with the 3-6-1 Detroit Lions coming to town, their game Sunday could mark the peak of Redskins fan apathy and set another low in a lost season that’s playing out in embarrassing fashion at FedEx Field.“I'm guaranteeing that it'll be 25% Redskins fans Sunday, 25% Lions fans Sundays and 50% empty seats,” said Kevin Stroop, who has been a Redskins season-ticket holder since 2005. “It'll be a lightly attending friends and family affair, I think.”Washington has lost nine consecutive home games, and the combination of on-field failures and a subpar game day experience has sunken attendance for a once-proud franchise with three long-ago Super Bowl titles.After the team conceded the end of a “sellout streak” in 2018, the average announced attendance in five home games so far this season is 67,364 in a stadium that seats just under 82,000.Cornerback Josh Norman early this season said of “fair weather” fans, “When things turn around, don't come back on the ship.” Upon firing coach Jay Gruden after an 0-5 start, team president Bruce Allen was asked about the hordes of New England Patriots fans invading and responded: “I'm sure many of our fans put their tickets on the second (sic) market and made some money on it selling it to people from the Northeast. All we can do is try to improve our product.”That product hasn’t improved. Washington is 1-4 under interim coach Bill Callahan, and even excitement about rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins and some young offensive playmakers is muted by two decades of struggles since Dan Snyder bought the team and almost all bad years since Allen started running it.“You go to the stadium and the chants are either for the other team or 'Sell the team,’” said Eileen Williams, a five-year season-ticket holder. “Nobody cares anymore.”Williams and Stroop are planning to attend the Lions-Redskins game Sunday, but each is on the fence about renewing for another season. Williams doesn’t want to waste the money she has poured into tickets and parking, while Stroop promised his family they’d all go to this game after selling his two seats to the home opener against the Dallas Cowboys in September.“It's kind of the culmination of things http://www.patriotslockerroom.com/authentic-devin-mccourty-jersey ,” Stroop said of growing fan unrest. “Quite frankly, you saw the same thing with the Baltimore Orioles in the last 10 years, 15 years. Every year, you see a few more (empty seats), a few more, a few more and then what happens is you go to a game like I went to last year the last game of the year with the Philadelphia Eagles in town and it was 85% Eagles fans, and it was like, 'Who wants to be part of that?'”Stroop, 41 of Crofton, Maryland, knows now he could’ve waited and bought the same club-level seats for half of what he paid, and that’s not an exaggeration. StubHub and VividSeats have tickets available for around $10, with fees included, to witness what still qualifies as an NFL game.Williams has been to four of five Redskins home games so far this season but said she was disappointed when she realized they were back again Sunday. Her old tailgating crew of 12 has shrunk to three with so many canceling their season tickets, and the game day experience is to blame if the 37-year-old from Ashburn, Virginia, gives them up before 2020.“It's one thing if you have a fun experience,” Williams said. “But from getting your ticket scanned to parking to getting into the stadium to trying to get a beer — I have a friend that two games ago tried to get chicken tenders for her kid and it was over half an hour — that whole part Kevin Faulk Jersey , if that was the way it used to be four or five years ago, that would make it all a little bit better.”It’s not any easier inside the Redskins locker room as players endure the pain of a season that has gone off the rails.“It’s tough,” veteran running back Chris Thompson said. “Guys have been doing the best that they possibly can in this situation. We've been just having our talks internally about everything that's going on. Obviously we are not of proud of what we've done out there.”LOSING LIONSThe Lions have lost three consecutive games for the third time in Matt Patricia’s 26-game career as an NFL head coach. They are mired in the worst seven-game stretch of Patricia’s tenure with only one win — a 31-26 victory over the New York Giants — during the slump that followed a 2-0-1 start.“Certainly, always looking for better ways to coach,” Patricia said. “That has to be my job, and that’s what I’m always trying to figure out every single week.”QB Matthew Stafford will miss his third consecutive game with a back injury, which means another start for backup Jeff Driskel.NICHOLSON STILL INWashington safety Montae Nicholson is expected to play his second game since an incident involving a 21-year-old woman dying of a drug overdose after he and a friend dropped her off at the hospital. Nicholson played in a 34-17 loss to the New York Jets last week, has continued to practice and refused interview requests.Fellow safety Landon Collins said players don’t talk about Nicholson’s situation and are letting him handle it.“My understanding is that Montae is cooperating with the local authorities,” Callahan said Wednesday. “Right now, he is on the active roster and is scheduled to play.”BY THE NUMBERSDetroit ranks 30th in the NFL in defense, giving up 412.8 yards per game, and against the pass and on third down. The Lions give up 27-plus points per game, ranking 27th, and are 28th in the red zone defensively and 24th against the run.“Numbers don’t lie,” Detroit cornerback Justin Coleman said. “But the numbers don’t tell the full story of what this team is capable of defensively.”AP Sports Writer Larry Lage in Allen Park, Michigan, contributed.Follow AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno