The New England Patriots have been preparing for their Super Bowl LX rematch with the Seattle Seahawks for quite some time now, but the drama surrounding Christian Gonzalez‘s contract extension talks continued to hover over the team. That changed on Tuesday morning when the Pats managed to sign Gonzalez to a record-breaking four-year, $135 million deal.
With this deal, Gonzalez has become the highest-paid cornerback in the league, which is the goal he set out to achieve this offseason. The path taken to get to this point was long and winding, though, and according to one NFL insider, New England was so discouraged with its negotiations with Gonzalez that it very nearly considered making a drastic move.
Patriots Nearly Pulled Their Christian Gonzalez Contract Offer Off the Table
In order to get Gonzalez to sign off on his new deal, New England had to get through some grueling contract negotiations. Not only did Gonzalez want to become the highest-paid cornerback in the league, but his agent also represented Seahawks star cornerback Devon Witherspoon, who was looking to earn the same title.
With both guys being used as leverage against each of their respective teams, that made life quite difficult for the Patriots. Witherspoon ended up blinking first, as he signed a four-year, $132 million deal with Seattle. That seemingly paved the way for New England to find common ground with Gonzalez, but it took longer than expected for that development to materialize.
While a resolution has been reached, things did not appear to be in a good spot between Gonzalez and the Pats over the past few days. According to NFL insider Adam Schefter of ESPN, things got so bad that the Patriots were actually considering pulling their offer to Gonzalez off the table entirely, with these conversations taking place as late as just hours before the deal was finalized.
It was strained enough at one point that there were conversations in the Patriots organization in recent days about whether or not they should pull the offer that eventually Christian Gonzalez signed off on,” Schefter said on “The Adam Schefter Podcast.” “Those conversations, I believe, went into the day on Monday.
Christian Gonzalez, Patriots Beat the Buzzer With Historic Contract
This is a pretty big revelation from Schefter, and it makes it even more impressive that the Pats and Gonzalez were able to find some common ground on this contract. The two sides almost certainly would have revisited these contract talks next offseason if a deal wasn’t agreed upon, but with the regular season getting underway on Wednesday, it’s clear that the sense of urgency ratcheted up over the past 24 hours or so.
Regardless of how it got done, the only thing that matters now is that the ink on this deal has dried, and Gonzalez will remain in New England for years to come. He will immediately face a big test, as he will be tasked with locking up the reigning Offensive Player of the Year, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, when these two teams take the field at 8:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday night.
Patriots Considered Wild Christian Gonzalez Move Before $135 Million Contract Extension