English
Español
The NFL announced the 2026 salary cap on Friday, and along the way informed its clubs of other important numbers. Among those were the values of the fifth-year contract options for 2023 first-round draft choices such as the New England Patriots’ Christian Gonzalez.
Gonzalez’s fifth-year option will come at a cost of $18.119 million, according to data shared by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. The Patriots have until May 1 to either pick it up or decline it.
The 17th overall selection in the 2023 draft, Gonzalez looked like one of the best cornerbacks in football out of the gate. While his rookie campaign was cut short after four games, he bounced back in 2024 and earned second-team All-Pro recognition on top of proving himself one of the best young defensive backs in the league.
In 2025, the arrow kept pointing up. Gonzalez started all of the 18 games he appeared in and played on a high level throughout the season, and especially in the playoffs. His performance allowed him to be nominated for the Pro Bowl on first ballot, which in turn placed him in the second-highest tier for the fifth-year option.
In theory, exercising the option and thus keeping Gonzalez under contract through 2027 seems like little more than a formality for the Patriots. However, there is a chance that they might not make use of it after all: the 23-year-old is a realistic candidate to be signed to a multi-year extension this offseason.
“Obviously, we love Christian and we’ll talk about those things when the time is appropriate. But Christian took a big step forward this year,” Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said about Gonzalez earlier this week at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “He took a big step forward with his play style and we’re excited about having him be a part of our team for the long term.”
The Patriots are currently ranked among the top 10 in salary cap space this offseason. Cap expert Miguel Benzan projects them to be around $41.3 million under the league’s $301.2 million spending ceiling, with Gonzalez’s current contract accounting for just $4.8 million.