Projecting Christian Gonzalez's Patriots Contract After Devon Witherspoon's Historic Seahawks Deal

Now that Devon Witherspoon has agreed to terms on a new deal with the Seattle Seahawks, another cornerback from the 2023 NFL draft class knows where his market stands as he looks for an extension.

Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, Christian Gonzalez and the New England Patriots "have not made much progress" in talks thus far as he seeks a new deal and shares the same agent as Witherspoon.

The Seahawks gave Witherspoon a four-year, $132 million extension that makes him the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL by total value, guaranteed money (more than $101 million) and average annual salary ($33 million).

It's safe to assume Gonzalez will look for a similar deal from the Patriots since, like Witherspoon, he has made the All-Pro second team within his first three NFL seasons and is a key player for the New England defense.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft told reporters at the start of training camp last month that Gonzalez had an offer on the table to make him the NFL's highest-paid cornerback:

"We love Christian Gonzalez. We love him as a player, as a person, and that's why we've made an offer to him to make him the highest-paid player to ever play that position in the NFL. And coincidentally, it is the highest contract in Patriots franchise history. So we're glad we drafted him, he's developed here, and we hope he'll be with us for a long time."

Things have changed in the time since then thanks to deals given to Witherspoon and Denzel Ward, who got a two-year, $62.2 million extension from the Cleveland Browns that made him the highest-paid corner by average annual salary before Witherspoon's contract.

Following the trajectory of top-tier cornerback contracts this offseason, Witherspoon got around a six percent increase in total value on Trent McDuffie's four-year, $124 million deal from the Los Angeles Rams.

The roughly $101 million in total guarantees for Witherspoon is $1 million more than the $100 million for McDuffie. His $33 million average annual salary is $1.9 million more than Ward got from the Browns.

Gonzalez would seem unlikely to get a six percent bump on Witherspoon's contract since that would put him at roughly $140 million over four years, but he has every right to seek essentially the same deal with maybe a little more on top.

An offseason survey of coaches, scouts and executives conducted by ESPN's Jeremy Fowler had Gonzalez one spot ahead of Witherspoon in the cornerback rankings.

Fowler cited Gonzalez's 38.8 completion percentage allowed in New England's playoff run last year as a strength, noting it was the best for any player in the postseason who was targeted a minimum of 25 times since at least 2018

Witherspoon does have a statistical edge over Gonzalez in passes defensed (32-24), but part of that is because Gonzalez only played four games as a rookie in 2023 due to a dislocated shoulder and torn labrum.

There has been no indication of lingering effects from the injury. Gonzalez has appeared in 30 games over the past two seasons, making the All-Pro team in 2024 and earning his first Pro Bowl nod in 2025.