Christian Gonzalez Reaches Deal With The Patriots

By Steve Atkinson 

Christian Gonzalez is now the highest-paid cornerback in the league after an agreement was made between him and the Patriots overnight. This comes ahead of the season opener Wednesday night in Seattle. The Patriots had to get this done for Gonzalez to give 100 percent. I think Vrabel had a huge part in getting the deal done before the start of the season. If this were Belichick, there still wouldn’t be a deal.

Christian Gonzalez Wins the Negotiation with the Patriots

The question is, why did it take so long? Because the Patriots wanted to give an incentive contract, but now he’s got $102 million guaranteed. He wanted to be the highest-paid cornerback in the league, and he got it. Gonzalez’s agent probably pushed to get a deal done because look what Seattle did ahead of the opener. Gonzalez would’ve given at least 50 percent if no deal had been done. Gonzalez got what he wanted and won the negotiation, probably with Vrabel’s help as well.

You don’t beat Seattle without Christian Gonzalez giving 100 percent. He’s probably the best player on defense and was the best player in the Super Bowl. Now that a weight has been lifted, Gonzalez should be a full go Wednesday night.

All that fake injury stuff during joint practice was leverage. Gonzalez not committing to playing Wednesday night the other day was leverage. He was putting pressure on the Patriots to get it done, and with help from, I think, Vrabel, it got done.

If the Krafts wanted to sign him with all those guarantees back in July, then his trainer wouldn’t have gone on Felger and Mazz and said the language was trash. It was all incentives, and the Krafts’ hand was forced to go all in, which, if Belichick were still here, he wouldn’t have said to the Krafts, ” Do it. But with Vrabel, who knows how the Krafts operate contract-wise and knows how it went down with Belichick, saw enough, definitely said something, and agreed with Gonzalez’s team.

Drake Maye will be next at this time next year, and we need to avoid the same timeline. This was from Karen Guregian from Mass Live

That’s been one of Mike Vrabel’s chief mantras, and failing to do so would have stunted his credibility with the players.

Not dealing with Gonzalez, and failing to lock him up, would have been a potential season killer if he had decided to hold out without an extension, or come up with a convenient injury to miss games, or play cautiously when he was out on the field.