While the contract negotiations between the New England Patriots and Christian Gonzalez are ongoing, the cornerback market in the NFL was reset.
The Cleveland Browns and five-time Pro Bowler Denzel Ward reached an agreement on Tuesday that would reportedly pay him $62.2 million over two years, including $52.3 million in guarantees. While full details of the pact are not yet available, reports indicate that the 29-year-old is now indeed the highest-pair cornerback in football on the basis of annual average value.
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His $31.1 million AAV barely beats the previous record set by Trent McDuffie’s $31 million per-year deal signed with the Rams earlier this offseason. This is also something the Patriots and Gonzalez will have noticed.
New England’s No. 1 cornerback, after all, is trying to become the top-compensated cornerback in the game himself. According to team owner Robert Kraft, the organization is willing to help him in that quest and has an offer on the table that would at least have put him above McDuffie.
With Ward now signing a new deal, however, the floor has been raised ever so slightly.
Ward’s $31.1 million per year is the new benchmark now, a minuscule increase in the grand scheme of things but one that nonetheless has reshaped the market. Gonzalez, after all, is not the only CB vying a new deal: Seattle and fellow 2023 first-round draft pick Devon Witherspoon are working on what will be a record-breaking pact themselves, and the belief is that the Patriots and Gonzalez are waiting for this one to drop first before committing.
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If so, and assuming Witherspoon also wants top-of-the-market money when he signs his own deal, we can now expect Gonzalez to make at least $32.3 million annually on a new pact. When that pact will be signed remains to be seen, but the 24-year-old fully participating in training camp can be seen as an encouraging sign.
“It’s different, but at the end of the day, it’s business and I’m blessed to be able to do this as my job,” Gonzalez said following Tuesday’s practice at Gillette Stadium. “So, you know, can’t get too much into it. Get to wake up and come out here and play football for a job. So very blessed, just happy that I’m able to come out here, run around and do what I love for my living.”
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