Just one month and one game in, Stephon Gilmore has already endeared himself amongst his Carolina Panthers teammates. And it’s easy to see why.
When talking with reporters prior to Thursday’s practice, defensive coordinator Phil Snow was asked whose call it was to stick the 10th-year cornerback on Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts in the Week 8 victory. Snow graciously gave the credit to Gilmore himself.
“I’d like to take credit for that, but he came to us and said ‘Hey, let me have Pitts,’” Snow stated. “So that’s a good problem to have, right?”
The rookie phenom came into that tilt against the Panthers having registered 282 receiving yards in his previous two outings combined. Carolina, with help from the 2019 AP Defensive Player of the Year, limited Pitts to just 13 yards on two grabs over six targets.
Gilmore was thrown at four times over his 17 snaps this past Sunday. Three of those throws were intended for Pitts and, according to Pro Football Focus, resulted in just two catches—one by Pitts for two yards and the other by Gilmore for an interception to ice the game.