On Wednesday, teams can slap franchise and transition tags on pending NFL free agents. Under a franchise tag, Gilmore would be paid the average of the top five players at the position, which would be roughly $14.3 million.

That's a ridiculous amount. Gilmore isn't close to a top five cornerback in the league. And even if he were, the Bills are at a point where they have to make tough decisions in the name of roster balance and fiscal sanity, the way Bill Belichick has done throughout the Pats' pesky whipper-snapper run of dominance.

The Pats have their financial issues, like any team. They have 13 unrestricted free agents (the Bills have 24), including six starters. Belichick will bid an impassive goodbye to some key players, as he always does. But they have $65 million in available cap space, an amazing amount for a team that has won two Super Bowls in three years.

Players compete for money. The free agent payoff is the contract of a lifetime. But over the last two years, it became tiresome hearing Gilmore declaring that he deserved to be paid like the top cornerbacks. He seemed to put his financial future ahead of the team. It certainly looked that way later in the year when he showed no appetite for sticking his head in against the run.