The New England Patriots may have found themselves down at the end of the first half of Super Bowl LX against the Seattle Seahawks, but one player who has put together a performance that is every bit of what fans thought they were getting (and then some) is cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
Gonzalez was tasked with stopping Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who has served as the linchpin that makes this Seahawks offense run, and he has helped limit the All-Pro to just one catch for four years while keeping him out of the end zone.
Between a spectacular play on a deep pass that prevented Sam Darnold from linking up with Rashid Shaheed for a big gain and another solid job of keeping Seattle out of the end zone late in the first half, Gonzalez is making a firm case to be considered among the best of the best.
Green Bay Packers pass rusher Micah Parsons believes that Gonzalez should be in conversations for the title of CB1 across the league with Denver Broncos star Patrick Surtain II. After watching that first half, can you disagree?
Micah Parsons says Patriots CB Christian Gonzalez might be the best in the NFL
It has to feel amazing for Patriots fans to see Gonzalez start to put it all together. The first few years of his career were marred by injuries, and what games he did manage to play in were in service of a largely horrid team that was picking in the top of the NFL Draft repeatedly.
Gonzalez may not have the best advanced analytic numbers out there, but flipping on even a cursory amount of Patriots tape shows how he can swallow up wide receivers and completely change the tenor of an offensive game plan. Darnold looks shaken now that Smith-Njigba is covered up.
Gonzalez didn't record an interception in the regular season, and his pure coverage stats are inferior to names like Houston's Derek Stingley Jr. and Indianapolis' Sauce Gardner, but the package of what he brings in totality makes him as good, if not better, than anyone else.
Gonzalez was easily the best player of the first half for New England, and he is a huge reason why the score is what it is at this point rather than an even more alarming deficit. The NFL world is being put on notice, as what Gonzalez is doing should be a serious wake-up call to the rest of the league.