Just got done watching every target of Gilmore's from last year along with every snap from the Eagles, Raiders and Skins games, and all in all, pretty good.
He's certainly not a legit Pro Bowler anymore (maybe a fake Pro Bowler after 4 guys drop out that we have so many of these days) but he's a massive upgrade over Brown and there's no chance we're going to see QB's just throwing 50/50 prayer shots against him 3 times a game like teams were doing several games in a row against Brown before he got hurt.
He's not great crashing down to make tackles against bubble screens and such, and his short area quickness/burst seems to have faded so he can get beat on quick little isolation whip-type routes, but his technique and understanding of leverage is so strong it doesn't really matter much the majority of the time.
Officially he gave up 54 completions last year but a bunch of those were short little 5ish yard comebacks/outs when he was playing Off/Zone with a 8-10 yard cushion due to the coverage call where often times it's arguable whether or not the guy was even his responsibility at that depth. If I had to guess I'd say he was only legitimately beaten maybe 20-25 times all year, and almost never over the top, it was often intermediate crosser-type stuff where a WR would start out on one side of the field near the sideline and run nearly parallel all the way across to the other side of the field into vacated space against man coverage, which is basically impossible to stop and it's usually just the right play call catching the right coverage at the wrong time.
He was really solid against AJ Brown, McLaurin and Davante Adams, gave up a few little things here and there but was generally on top of them most of the day and held up well when challenged vertically down field. He was 1-on-1 against Adams in pure Man on 4th and 7 in the red zone on the game deciding play, up 25-20 with :52 left. Adams ran a stutter fade and it was basically a 50/50 jump ball, Adams got nowhere near it as Gilmore squeezed him towards the sideline leaving him no room to maneuver for the ball.
I almost never saw him beaten vertically downfield for big chunk 30+ yard plays. McLaurin had one miracle catch that basically won the game with like 20 seconds left but it was mostly a fluke with the QB scrambling around for about 6 seconds and Gilmore/McLaurin wrestling for the ball as they came down with Gilmore in perfect position. Reminded me of that random 50-yard jump ball TD Diggs gave up in 2021 against some scrub Redskins WR on the road when he was in perfect position and nearly had the pick but the WR came down with it.
I never thought CB was a huge need but having him around will be valuable considering we'll be going up against Brown/Smith and McLaurin/Dotson 4 times next year. The front office not feeling like they have to spend a 1 on a CB will be even more valuable.
