Nobody expected to see Christian Gonzalez playing in the New England Patriots‘ first preseason game, with all of the starters sitting. Still, after he missed joint practices with the Indianapolis Colts starting on Tuesday, there have been some major concerns about his health.
After the game, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel was asked about Gonzalez being away from the team. However, he would deflect that concern.
“Christian was in a group of many players that weren’t here tonight,” Vrabel said.
The Patriots and Colts ended up tying at 13, in a game where the defense was still able to force four turnovers. However, missed field goals ended up costing the Patriots a chance to win.
Mike Vrabel Further Clarified Why New England Patriots Star Christian Gonzalez Has Been Absent
GettyNew England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel
Given that Christian Gonzalez missed practices leading up to the preseason game, something that wasn’t the case for other starters who missed the preseason game, there’s still some concern about the New England Patriots star.
An injury would obviously be a major challenge for the Patriots to overcome. However, given where Gonzalez is in his contract negotiations, there are also real concerns he could be holding himself out while he tries to find his new deal. So, Vrabel would later be pressed to clarify the situation during his postgame press conference.
“Christian was unavailable, physically unavailable for the practice,” Vrabel said. “That’s the clarification. Just like other players that I told to have treatment, and everybody has a plan here, there were other guys that were in that same category. If you want to list the names, Christian Elliss, Brenden Schooler, Harold Landry, Christian Barmore, et cetera. So make sure they’re all included. They were all in the same group of what they did.”
That reply from Vrabel would imply that it was injury related. Perhaps nothing serious enough to note, but serious enough where spending time getting healthy was more important than Tuesday’s joint practice.
New Details Emerged in the Christian Gonzalez Contract Negotiations
GettyNew England Patriots DB Christian Gonzalez
It’s no secret at this point that Christian Gonzalez wants to reset the cornerback market with the Patriots. It’s also no secret that he has the same agent as Devon Witherspoon of the Seattle Seahawks, who is also looking for a massive deal at cornerback. So, he will likely wait for that deal to reset that number.
Still, a new report from Patriots insider Tom E. Curran further explained the issue. Gonzalez wants to reset the market going forward too.
Curran said that Gonzalez “does not want his contract to be obsolete within seven months.”
In other words, with the rising salary cap in the NFL, Gonzalez doesn’t want to quickly get knocked off the perch as the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL. Curran believes, then, that Gonzalez wants to view negotiations through a 2027 lens, meaning something in the $34 to $35 million range for his average annual value.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft previously said, “We love him as a player, as a person.” He’d then go on to add that the team already offered Gonzalez a contract to make him the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL, which would also be the highest contract in team history.
Gonzalez was, of course, asked about that. However, he would prefer to keep negotiations internal.
“A ton of respect for Mr. Kraft,” Gonzalez said. “Just something we don’t want to handle in the media, keep that with the team and my team.”
Patriots HC Mike Vrabel Clarifies Why Christian Gonzalez Has Been Absent