A.J. Brown officially arrived in Foxboro as a member of the New England Patriots on Monday, passed his physical, and took the practice field, adding some real energy to Week 2 of voluntary OTAs.
Now that one of the NFL’s worst-kept secrets is now official, Patriots fans can turn their attention to the most notable player who’s been away for most of head coach Mike Vrabel’s offseason program to date.
Cornerback Christian Gonzalez became eligible for a contract extension at the conclusion of the 2025 season, and the big question following his stellar playoff performances is: What’s the hold up here? Aside from picking up the fifth-year option on Gonzalez’s contract, which will pay him $18.1 million in 2027, the team has revealed little publicly on the progress of those negotiations.
Gonzalez is technically under team control for two more seasons, but context is required given how the cash in rookie contracts is dispersed. Gonzalez has already been paid $12.2 million of his original four-year, $15.1 million rookie deal, per Spotrac. And while a sizable pay increase is now scheduled in 2027, he’s due to play for less than $3 million in 2026.
When a young player of Gonzalez’s caliber completes his third year of NFL service time, it’s time to get paid. The Patriots are free to play the “Christian’s under contract” card this summer, but it would behoove their star corner to remain off the field until his extension gets done. All signs point to him doing just that.
The elephant in the room? New England just added $29 million in guaranteed salary this year with Brown hitting their books. With quarterback Drake Maye eligible for his own extension in 2027, speculation on the Patriots’ plan for Gonzalez will only grow the longer he remains off the field.
When asked about Gonzalez’s situation on Tuesday, Vrabel sounded like a coach who expects talks to drag on for a bit longer.
“Well I think that there’s… the contract is the business and the professional side of this, the personal side,” Vrabel said. “I don’t want to let anything interfere with that. I want Christian to be ready when he comes back, and I would imagine that he would be here next week. If he is, then we’ll coach him and be ready to move on and get him ready to help us and help himself. Contracts are part of professional sports. I understand that. But I also know that those should remain private, and like any contract, you want to make sure in the negotiation that everybody feels like they got something out of it. I’ll leave it at that.”
How A.J. Brown’s arrival could complicate Christian Gonzalez’s contract dispute
Vrabel was also asked about Brown’s contract, which is structured in the Howie Roseman method with prorated option bonuses and five void years. The coach circled around the question, essentially stating that he didn’t foresee anything coming that would keep Brown from being on the field and getting acclimated to his new team.
In other words, Brown doesn’t appear to be demanding an updated contract with more future guarantees, and the Patriots aren’t planning to restructure the deal with any sort of pay cut (at least not publicly).
That means cash that could have been earmarked for Gonzalez's new signing bonus this year may now be tied up in Brown's deal instead.
Brown’s cap hits are minimal for a No. 1 wideout — $7 million this year and $10.9 million in 2027, per Over the Cap. But the real cash payouts are sizable. Brown has $32 million in guarantees left in his deal, with all but $4 million of it coming due this year.
So with the Patriots apparently playing hardball with Gonzalez on a deal that would be in the team’s best interest to hammer out ASAP, it begs the question: Could Gonzalez request to negotiate his new deal with a team that’s more willing to pay him?
No Patriots fan wants to be compared to owner Woody Johnson and the New York Jets, but they did set the market with last year’s trade of Sauce Gardner. The Jets recouped two first-round picks in that deal, and the Colts promptly signed Gardner to a four-year, $120.4 million extension with $40.5 million in guarantees.
New England just traded its first-round pick in 2028 in the deal for Brown, so it’s at least fair to speculate whether the team would consider shopping Gonzalez this summer for a similar haul. Vrabel hasn’t once hinted that Gonzalez could be traded, but Browns GM Andrew Berry emphatically shut down Myles Garrett trade chatter last month, and as soon as the calendar flipped to June 1, Garrett became a member of the Los Angeles Rams.
As Vrabel said, this is the business side of the game. In the modern NFL with rookie-scale contracts, it’s Gonzalez’s turn to get paid. It really is that simple.
It would be in the Patriots’ best interest to ink Gonzalez to an extension that will pay him north of $30 million per year, which is going top-market rate, before the Seahawks sign Devon Witherspoon and push the price even higher. The longer this thing drags out, and the more Vrabel preaches the “business side” of the NFL, the cloudier Gonzalez’s Patriots future appears from the outside.
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