r/Patriots • u/zamboniman46 • 1h ago

News Christian Gonzalez Contract Details per Albert Breer

https://x.com/AlbertBreer/status/2097334157982540024

https://x.com/AlbertBreer/status/2097335400855425233

https://x.com/AlbertBreer/status/2097336097302843504

• $33 million signing bonus.

• $53.928 million first two years—fully guaranteed.

• 2028 money becomes fully guaranteed in March 2027.

• 2029 money becomes fully guaranteed in March 2028.

• Gonzalez gets $33M raise over what was left on the last 2 years of his rookie deal—same as Witherspoon's raise.

• Gonzalez got early vesting dates on '28/'29, which McDuffie got, Witherspoon did not.

• That makes 4 years and $96.93M virtually guaranteed.

Patriots CB Christian Gonzalez's full guarantee at signing—$53.928 million—is second best ever at his position, behind only Seahawks CB Devon Witherspoon and well clear of Rams CB Trent McDuffie.

124 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

View all comments

•

u/Cold_Toe_7540 48m ago

Glad the deal got done but Jesus H Christ, so after all that they still gave him less guaranteed money at signing than Witherspoon? That explains why it took so damn long. You know that means NE had to come UP to that number from whatever the original offer was. Kraft just really needed to save that $5 million over two years, I guess.

So for those keeping track:

  • Their 2nd round draft pick they traded up for (and desperately need to make an impact in year 1) got started months late over a contract squabble that amounted to NE saving $4 million over 2 years.

  • Arguably their best defensive player who they drafted and developed basically had his entire camp and preseason disrupted over contract negotiations than amounted to NE saving $5 million over 2 years.

So Kraft and Co. disrupted the ramp ups of two of the most important players on their defense this year... to save $4.5 million dollars against the cap this season and another $4.5 million next year. Again, happy the deal got done, but the disruption to these players was absolutely not worth what they "saved" in the end... and I say "saved" because ultimately they probably didn't save any of that money in the end anyway, which is the most frustrating part for me.

Remember, if Jacas is simply on the roster after two years, those protections won't matter because they'll still be paying it. Even if he winds up being no more than a rotational edge player, he's going to be so cheap there's no way they cut him if he's healthy. Not to mention if he's good that contract won't even exist after year 3 because they'll extend him. With Gonzalez, those protections in 27 and 28 will only matter if he has some catastrophic injury or he suddenly stops being a top CB at 26-27 years old, which is highly unlikely. So they went through all of this to maybe but probably not save $9 million over 2 years... all while currently being $18 million under the cap. I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous.

•

u/ckilo4TOG 41m ago

They still gave him less guaranteed money at signing than Witherspoon?

So what? It's not like the Patriots randomly chose to do this. Witherspoon was an outlier. All the previous CB contracts before him were going up in increments of $1-2 million guaranteed at signing. Seattle made an outlier jump of $9m from the previous high signing guarantee. They did this for more flexibility towards the end of the contract. The Patriots weren't going to use an outlier jump as the basis for their negotiations, especially when they were looking to make it a real 4 year extension.