3 Players Cleveland Browns could trade for ahead of 2021 training camp

1. Stephon Gilmore, CB, New England Patriots

Here’s a name that’s been floated several times as an option for the Browns, Stephon Gilmore. A former first-round pick (No. 10 overall) in 2012, Gilmore spent his first five seasons with the Buffalo Bills before moving on and joining the New England Patriots where he has played for the past four seasons.

He’s still under contract as he enters the final season of his five-year, $65 million deal signed back in 2017. However, he’s reportedly not working with the team and is not thrilled with his current situation.

The problems could be traced back to 2020 when Gilmore’s name was floated as a trade piece and his exit is even more likely considering he has a high cap hit, will be turning 31 this season, and the Patriots just paid Jalen Mills a boatload of money.

While all that makes sense for the Patriots to be willing to move on, Cleveland is in a much different spot than the Pats as they’re contending in the AFC right now whereas New England is rebuilding (even if their free-agent spending is trying to suggest otherwise).

Adding Gilmore would give the Cleveland secondary another alpha across from Denzel Ward and even though he’s over 30, Gilmore isn’t that far removed from winning the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award, which he did in 2019.

The Browns would likely try and re-work his contract to make him fit better under the cap but putting Gilmore in their secondary would solve an awful lot of their depth concerns while giving them a potentially elite defense.