The Minnesota Vikings have signed veteran cornerback Stephon Gilmore to a 1 year contract on Sunday the team announced. The deal, which will feature $7M in guaranteed money, can go as high as $10M if all incentives are reached.
The signing reunites Gilmore with former New England Patriots coach Brian Flores who is now the Vikings defensive coordinator.
The 5x Pro Bowler joins a Minnesota roster that has been ravaged by injury and off-field tragedy over the last few months. Gilmore joins a secondary which has seen Duke Shelley, Jacobi Francis, Fabian Moreau, and Nashon Wright join their ranks over the last few weeks in an effort to solidify the DB position.
The 34 year old underwent offseason surgery to repair a torn labrum, and had previously visited the Vikings facility last week. Evidently there was more to that visit than just the cursory “exploring all free agent options” on the Vikings part, as Gilmore likely underwent team medicals at the same time.
Gilmore enjoyed a bounce back season with the Cowboys in 2023, starting all 17 games and recording 2 interceptions. His 13 passes defended were his most in a single season since 2019 when he was a member of the New England Patriots.
Although there’s still a ways to go in terms of seeing where the dust settles in training camp, it would appear for now that Minnesota hopes to deploy a combination of Gilmore, Shaquil Griffin, Byron Murphy Jr., and Akayleb Evans in the early parts of the season.
The Vikings have their final preseason game of the summer on Saturday August 24th when they take on the Philadelphia Eagles in a 1pm ET showdown.
Photo: Ben Photos. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.