On Monday, Buffalo Bills Rex Ryan made a surprising declaration to the media in his first press conference since the team returned from their bye week.

“In the secondary there’ll be competition, maybe the offensive line, but we have to do what’s best for our football team regardless of maybe where we thought. Let’s do what’s best. Whoever’s playing best will be out there,” said Ryan.

What was surprising is that it was second-year cornerback Ronald Darby that seemingly wasn’t ‘playing the best’ in coach Ryan’s eyes – not Stephon Gilmore, who many fans believe should be the one fighting for his job.

While Darby has certainly had his struggles in recent weeks, Gilmore has not only failed to live up to the lofty expectations he set for himself prior to the season. In his contract year, the fifth-year cornerback was supposed to be the Darelle Revis-like player in coach Ryan’s aggressive and multiple-look defensive scheme that relies on its cornerbacks to play tight man coverage.

On the surface, Gilmore has it all! The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder has the length (31″ arms) and the speed (4.4-second 40-yard dash) that allows him to run with jut about any wide receiver he’s lined up with. But, Gilmore doesn’t have the footwork, not the ball skills of Revis.

What is the reason for Stephon Gilmore’s perceived steep dropoff?

When the eye in the sky is turned on, Gilmore’s struggles have to do with his technique and how he is being attacked. Rex Ryan puts a lot of pressure on his cornerbacks, who are essentially on an ‘island’ defending wide receivers one-on-one for a majority of the game.

Gilmore has always been a cornerback that excelled when an opposing offense wanted to throw quick, timing routes – often referred to as a ‘squat corner’.

He’s not your typical Cover-2, squat corner, but one that is at his best when in a press-man technique, excelling when the quarterback wants to get rid of the ball quickly.

This allows him to jump or cut off routes – which was a huge reason why Gilmore had the eighth-most pass deflections last season (18) in just 12 games and Darby was fifth (21).

But why is that? Last season the Bills defense had trouble getting to the quarterback so they were forced to blitz more. According to Pro Football Focus, Buffalo blitzed on 32-percent of their defensive snaps and 35-percent through their first nine games.

Nine games into the 2016 season, the Bills have only blitzed on 24-percent of their defensive snaps. Blitzing at that rate in 2015 led to coordinator’s game-planning to get the ball out of their quarterback’s hands quickly.

This allowed Buffalo’s cornerback duo – which many believed to be among the NFL’s best- to jump a lot of routes, and force incompletions.

Gilmore in press-man

In the Bills’ 2015 season opener against the Indianapolis Colts, a game in which coach Ryan’s defense blitzed on 47-percent of their defensive snaps, Gilmore got his hands on four passes.

In the following play, Buffalo simulates a blitz and Colts quarterback Andrew Luck throws it to his ‘hot’ target, Andre Johnson. But, the coverage by Gilmore is tight.

While he doesn’t have the smoothest of footwork when in press technique, often using quite a few wasted steps, he’s still able to utilize his physicality at the line of scrimmage to stick to Johnson and cut off the slant route.

Through nine games last season Gilmore accumulated two interceptions and 10 pass deflections. In nine games this season, he has registered two interceptions and five pass deflections.

This season the Buffalo’s pass rush has been one of the best in the NFL. Their 30 sacks are the most in the NFL and according to Pro Football Focus, they average 18 total pressures per game.

So they are generating pressure without blitzing as often as they did a year ago. But that should be a good thing, right?

Yes, but coach Ryan generates havoc with exotic packages and simulated pressures. He will have multiple defenders, including safeties near the line of scrimmage to make it a appear like a blitz but then drop those players into unique coverages.

So, that will still leave his corners on an island. Especially deep, and this has caused problems for Gilmore this season.

As we have seen, Gilmore is at his best when he is used at the line of scrimmage where he is legally able to use his hands in press technique, which allows him to disrupt the timing of the opposing receiver’s route.

But he has even struggled at doing that this season. Gilmore has committed seven penalties so far this season all but one were from the press technique. He committed six penalties all of last season. The shoddy technique at the line of scrimmage has hurt him down the field as well.

Look at how ineffective Gilmore’s press technique is in this Cover-2 call from the Bills’ Week 9 loss to the Seahawks. Gilmore (bottom of the screen) should press and funnel the wide receiver inside to the safety. Luckily Alexander gets the sack.

In the very same game, Gilmore does a poor job of pressing Seattle wide receiver Jermaine Kearse at the line of scrimmage. The Bills send a four-man rush, but safety Corey Graham and Robert Blanton are bracketing the slot wide receiver Doug Baldwin deep.

That puts Gilmore one-on-one with Kearse. As Kearse is in his release phase he releases inside, Gilmore should jam with his near hand (right hand). This will disrupt the release, keep his hips open to the receiver and in the hip pocket. If you watch it in slow motion you can see him raise his right hand as if he was going to jam with it.

Instead, he opens to the sideline because he is worried about getting beat deep.

Kearse releases inside and Gilmore attempts to get back in phase. He’s over the top of the receiver as to not get beat deep.

But that gives Kearse the in-breaking route for 16-yards. This is just one example of how Gilmore hasn’t executed as well as in years past.

Another reason why Gilmore has given up the second-highest yards-per-completion (17.5) in the NFL amongst cornerbacks can be partially credited to play-calling and a failure to put one of the top defenders on the team in a position to maximize his strengths.

But, play calling often goes hand in hand with where his players are struggling.

How can the Bills get Stephon Gilmore back to his 2015 form?

Defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman knows that teams are attacking the Bills cornerbacks deep – and quite frankly, who wouldn’t, considering the success opposing offenses have had – so he’s been utilizing them in more off-coverage.

The play calls, along with having safeties that aren’t the most athletic has put Darby and Gilmore in an uncomfortable position. One of his weaknesses going back to his days at South Carolina was playing off coverage. This takes away Gilmore’s short area quickness which is a major strength of his. Pair that with slow eyes and it leads to him being late to diagnose and recover to routes.

Something that Revis was very good at. From off coverage Revis smoothly opens his hips, diagnoses the route and wastes no steps as he plants and drives on the ball.

Gilmore just doesn’t process routes as quickly from off coverage – specifically zone coverage or pattern matching coverage where a zone can turn to man coverage following the snap.

Cornerbacks must be able to read not only the route, and or combination of routes, but they have to do so in space, with their eyes on focused on the drop of the quarterback. This is something that Gilmore absolutely struggles with.

On the following play against the Los Angeles Rams, the offense motions to a 2×2 WR set. Typically coach Ryan will play quarters coverage in this situation, and this play is no different.

Gilmore is in zone coverage but based on the route it turns to man coverage. The slight hesitation by Gilmore needed to diagnose the routes, allows Los Angeles’ dynamic wide receiver Tavon Austin to get past him with ease.

Here are some of the biggest plays given up by Gilmore this season. Most of which were with Gilmore in press man coverage. Is the coverage bad? He has had some really tight coverage down the field but the offensive players have made plays. Safety help on these plays probably wouldn’t have helped. He should still make a play on the ball, but have fans been overly critical?

Has the final year of his contract, paired with how teams are now attacking him given fans the perception that he is worthy of being benched?

Check out his statistics through nine games last season versus this season.

He has given up a similar amount of yards so far this season just on fewer attempts, hence the 17.5 yards per reception. But, he has given up fewer touchdowns in 2016. In fact, his yards surrendered per coverage snap is exactly the same through nine games. As a whole, in 2015, Gilmore only allowed 1.41 yards per coverage snap, so the numbers are not that different.

So as Bills fans, have we let his looming contract status or the behavior towards his teammates cloud our judgments against him as a player?

Gilmore hasn’t made that many plays on the ball because teams have attacked him differently. Teams know what he is good at, so they haven’t tested him short, therefore he has fewer pass breakups through nine games.

Yes, Gilmore could do a better job getting a piece of the player near the line of scrimmage or even at the catch point but he hasn’t exactly been in bad position.

So the question now becomes, has the price for Gilmore’s services diminished? Teams have now found out ways to exploit him, so will he still get top dollar and if so will Buffalo’s front office pay it?

Those questions were probably answered easier prior to Monday’s news that journeyman Corey White was taking first team snaps over Darby. Darby, the apparent No. 1 cornerback of the future has given up 23 yards per- completion in the last four games, the second-most in the NFL. So it should come as no surprise that coming out of the bye week, coach Ryan wants to challenge his stars.

The open competition is merely a way for Rex to push his second-year corner in order to get him back on track.

Thurman needs to tweak the system, so the bye week came at a good time. It will allow him to re-evaluate his defense, especially his secondary. He has to determine ways to put them in a position to make plays. Mixing in more two-high safety looks, with his corners closer to the line of scrimmage should help this secondary.

The front seven has shown the ability to generate pressure in many ways without bringing the blitz. Much like the previous seasons under coordinators Jim Schwartz and Mike Pettine, Thurman and the rest of the defensive staff should rely on a relentless pass rush to help the secondary be in more advantageous positions, especially on the deep passes.

The Bills don’t possess the type of safeties that can play the deep middle with the ability to run sideline to sideline like the upper-echelon players like Earl Thomas.

So the defensive coordinator must show looks that would deter the deep ball (I.E. cover 2) and give opposing offenses the underneath stuff like defenses are doing to Tyrod Taylor.

Thurman should be able to turn Gilmore and Darby’s season around, allowing them to become one of the premier duos in the NFL again.

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