The writing was on the wall, and on Tuesday it finally happened: the New England Patriots picked up cornerback Christian Gonzalez’s fifth-year contract option. The deal, which seems more a formality than anything else, ensures that Gonzalez remains signed with the Patriots until after the 2027 season.
What else does it mean for the team, though? Let’s assess
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Buying some time
Gonzalez is a top three cornerback in the NFL right now, and as such a realistic candidate to reset the market at the position at some point in the future. And while both he and the Patriots had been working toward that happening, no agreement was set to materialize before the option deadline on May 1.
Exercising said option was therefore the only feasible course of action, but one that does give the two parties some wiggle room in their negotiations. The specter of free agency has been pushed back another year, meaning that there are now 22 months to come up with a deal.
That deal happening sooner rather than later is in everybody’s best interest; Gonzalez wants long-term security while the team wants to stay ahead of the curve on cornerback extensions. At the moment, Trent McDuffie’s $31 million per year is the top of the market, and Gonzalez is likely to exceed that number.
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The question is when not if, but the window for that “when” has just widened.
Smart business
Anything other than the Patriots signing Gonzalez to an extension over the coming months would be a surprise. However, stranger things have happened in the NFL, and if for some reason no deal is struck heading into the 2027 league year, New England now knows it has the 23-year-old signed on a cost-effective contract.
His fifth-year option is worth $18.119 million, which currently projects as the 22nd-highest cap hit for a cornerback in 2027. Needless to say, there are no 21 other cornerbacks better than Gonzalez right now, and that is not expected to change over the next 12 months either.
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Stability at cornerback
With Gonzalez tied to the team until March 2028, as mentioned above, the Patriots have their starting cornerback trio under contract for two more seasons. The Pro Bowler and veteran Carlton Davis are both signed through 2027, with slot corner Marcus Jones’ deal running through 2028.
All in all, the contract statuses for the entire current 11-man cornerback group look as follows (*denotes unsigned draft pick, °denotes reported UDFA signing):
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Signed through 2027: Christian Gonzalez, Carlton Davis III, Marcellas Dial Jr.
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Signed through 2028: Marcus Jones, Channing Canada°, Kenneth Harris°
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Signed through 2029: Karon Prunty*
Fifth-round draft choice Karon Prunty will become the first Patriots defensive back signed through 2029 as soon as he puts his signature under his four-year rookie pact. Of course, a potential Gonzalez extension would probably run beyond that season.
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5-for-11
The NFL introduced the fifth-year contract option for first-round draft picks as part of its 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement. Starting with that year’s draft class and the introduction of the rookie wage scale, teams had the opportunity to exercise the option on all players selected in Round 1.
The Patriots have picked 14 first-rounders over the 16 drafts since, including three — Drake Maye, Will Campbell, Caleb Lomu — not yet eligible for the option. Gonzalez, meanwhile, is now the fifth among the 11 remaining to get the extra year added to his rookie pact.
The full breakdown looks as follows, with each player’s draft year in parentheses:
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Exercised: OT Nate Solder (2011), ED Chandler Jones (2012), LB Dont’a Hightower (2012), OT Isaiah Wynn (2018), CB Christian Gonzalez (2023)
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TBD: QB Drake Maye (2024), OT Will Campbell (2025), OT Caleb Lomu (2026)
As can be seen, the Patriots hit a dry spell after some initial success. Now, however, they have rebounded and are on a positive run again: Gonzalez was a clear hit in the first round in 2023, with Drake Maye set to either sign a multi-year extension or also get his fifth-year contract exercised next spring.
Read the full article here
