Gonzalez has been arguably the Patriots’ best player so far this season.
Even though not everybody seems to agree, Christian Gonzalez currently finds himself in the middle of a very promising sophomore campaign. The former first-round draft pick has been arguably the New England Patriots’ best player in 2024, and one of the top cornerbacks in football despite consistently facing some challenging matchups.
Primarily going up against Ja’Marr Chase, DK Metcalf and Garrett Wilson over the first three weeks of the season, Gonzalez was targeted only 20 times in 132 coverage snaps. He surrendered a combined 13 catches for 79 yards and one touchdown on those targets.
His success is testament to a natural ability that made him one of the top cornerbacks in the 2023 NFL Draft. However, as defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington pointed out on Thursday, it also is the result of him simply doing his job week in and week out.
“He’s doing what we ask him to do. He’s stepping up to whatever challenge we ask him to do, and hopefully he can continue to do that,” Covington said.
“He’s a guy that puts his head down every single day. He works, he studies, he’s in the playbooks, he studies his opponent — route combinations, route concepts. He’s everything you want as a coach.”
The third cornerback off the board last spring, Gonzalez left an immediate impression upon his arrival in New England. As his position coach Mike Pellegrino pointed out, he ran with the second-string defense the first two days of offseason workouts before being moved up the depth chart and into a starting role.
Gonzalez never looked back, and entered his rookie regular season as the Patriots’ No. 1 cornerback. As such, he went up against some of the best wide receivers in football and managed to impress before a Week 4 shoulder injury knocked him out for the remainder of the year.
Despite the setback, the arrow continued to point in the right direction. As a consequence, the Patriots themselves felt confident putting more pressure on Gonzalez.
So far, he has answered the call.
“The one difference that Christian kind of separates himself is he’s not waiting around for the matchup,” explained Pellegrino.
“He goes and gets the matchup — plays inside, plays outside. That’s hard to do in the National Football League. Most guys play left, most guys play right; field, boundary, whatever. I’m not knocking anybody else, but what I’m asking him to do is very difficult. He’s stepped up to the challenge. As a corner coach and as a defensive coach, you can’t ask for more out of a guy.”