“I think this is a young man who loves, more than most fans probably understand, he loves to compete and to win. He loves to compete and to win,” Gilmore said. “It’s not him sitting there saying, ‘I want to get paid’ and all that stuff.” You always want to be paid what you are worth. But it won’t be on [forefront]. We want to sit down and go through and be like, ‘Okay, where can he hit all his goals?’ Which would be winning the Super Bowl, breaking records. It will be extremely important. The broken
“For him to know that whoever is going to be his point guard, whoever is going to be his coordinator, whoever is going to be his quarterback, that they have the ability to really thrive and make things happen. We want to make sure that if something breaks down, we have a quarterback that is hopefully mature or experienced or has a history of winning. Someone who knows how to … great balls. I haven’t really introduced anyone. Right now, that’s important to Mike.
“But I’ll tell you this: There’s no reason Tampa can’t hit all the things we want to hit.”
A return to Tampa is still on the table, but the 32-year-old should have a significant market when free agency opens. In a league with few X-receivers, the 6-foot-5 wideout is still talented. If he doesn’t return to the Bucs, the veteran believes the WR room he leaves behind will be just fine with Chris Godwin, Emeka Egbuka and Jalen McMillan leading the pack.
“I’ll tell you this, something Mike wanted me to tell everybody about him. That wide receiver room has elite talent in it,” Gilmore said. “There’s so much talent at the receivers position. There’s a ton of talent. He loves the kids — I hate to use the word kids, but they’re all younger — and he wants to see them thrive. I know that.”