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Jalen Ramsey recruits Stephon Gilmore via Twitter after Patriots cornerback misses first day of mini-camp
"Mookie Betts got traded from Boston to LA and won a ring! That was nice."
Stephon Gilmore wasn’t in attendance at the first day of Patriots’ mini-camp, and the rest of the league noticed, including Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
While Bill Belichick tried to downplay Gilmore’s absence while admitting he expected a “mostly full” roster for the mandatory OTAs, Ramsey took to Twitter to do some recruiting.
“What’s good my dawg?” Ramsey tweeted.
Shortly afterward, he followed up with a tweet that may have been intended to inflame Patriots fans.
“@mookiebetts got traded from Boston to LA & won a ring!” Ramsey wrote. “That was nice. What you think [Gilmore]?”
Belichick hinted that Ramsey’s absence may have been due to the weather.
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“Today’s the first day. They just got in here a little while ago,” Belichick said. “I’m not sure if everybody is here. We didn’t take attendance at the meeting. But we’ll find out who’s here and who isn’t soon enough.”
Gilmore is expected to sit the entire Patriots’ mandatory mini-camp according to the NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo. He turns 31 this year and is expected to make $7 million in base salary. An All-Pro cornerback, Gilmore remains under contract and he is still rehabbing a torn quad, which could make a trade difficult to facilitate.
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The NFL Network’s Ian Rapaport laid out the issues facing the Patriots.
“This is really a timing issue as much as anything,” Rapaport said on the network. “The Patriots have had some trade conversations over the course of the last year or so centered around Stephon Gilmore. Obviously teams are interested, [and] they know he’s coming up for a new contract, but the fact that he tore his quad toward the end of the season made trading him in March or April basically impossible.
“So now you get to where it’s June and you’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do. The Patriots have very rarely given third deals to people not named Tom Brady. Gilmore is going to be 31 by the time this season starts, but he is a special player, plus you have the uncertainty with J.C. Jackson on a one-year deal. A lot of things for the Patriots to figure out at the cornerback position this season.”
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