Vrabel, Gonzalez Address Star Cb's Contract Talks As Week 1 Looms

Vrabel, Gonzalez address star CB's contract talks as Week 1 looms originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Will the New England Patriots have their star cornerback for Wednesday night’s season opener and Super Bowl rematch against the Seattle Seahawks?

Christian Gonzalez and the Patriots still haven’t agreed on a contract extension with Week 1 looming. The 24-year-old recently called the negotiation process “frustrating,” and he hasn’t officially committed to suiting up in Seattle.

Predictably, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel has been peppered with questions about Gonzalez’s contract situation throughout training camp and preseason. That trend continued before Saturday’s practice in Foxboro.

Vrabel was asked whether, as a former player, he would ever give his two cents to the Patriots front office and advocate for someone such as Gonzalez.

“I mean, I think it’s an interesting dynamic. I’ve been on both sides,” Vrabel answered. “I think what’s important for me is to try to communicate, to try to explain the players that we really wanna build around and have, and I’ve done that with Gonzo. Everybody knows that. So, I don’t get involved in the negotiations per se, but I certainly wanna be involved in trying to get the situation resolved. That’s really what I try to do throughout my job, my day here, is what the issues are or what’s in front of us and what we have to do to help the team.

“But, it’s a delicate balance that we have to wage. I wanna be able to just continue to prepare for Seattle and focus on all the things that we’re gonna have to do to beat an excellent football team with our team, and the players that we have, and how we get off to a really good start here.”

On Day 1 of training camp last month, Patriots owner Robert Kraft felt comfortable enough with the negotiations to reveal that the team offered Gonzalez an extension that would make him the highest-paid cornerback and highest-paid Patriot of all time. Not long after that, Devon Witherspoon reset the cornerback market with his four-year, $132 million extension with Seattle.

Gonzalez’s deal was expected to come shortly after Witherspoon’s, but the two sides remain at an impasse. The Pro Bowler’s trainer recently told 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Felger & Mazz that while the money is on par with Witherspoon’s, “the contract language is trash.”

With only four days until a tough Week 1 matchup vs. the reigning Super Bowl champions, it’s still unclear whether Gonzalez will take the field. He sidestepped the question again on Saturday.

“I’m focused on today, right now, this practice,” Gonzalez said. “Worried (about) that right now, so we’ll focus on that.”

He also declined to say whether he would be willing to continue contract negotiations during the season.

“I feel like I’ve put this out there. I don’t wanna get into that with the media. You know, keep everything internal.”

As for his trainer, Gonzalez claims he had no issues with the candid interview.

“That’s my guy,” he said. “We have two different opinions. I mean he’s a grown man. If he wants to go talk on the media, he’s gonna go talk on the media, But you know, he’s my guy. I trust him with everything. He trusts me with everything. We talk every day, so it wasn’t anything to me that was bad.”

It’s clear that both Vrabel and Gonzalez are doing their best to keep the contract talks from being a distraction, but that’s a lost cause. As long as the issue is unresolved, there will be a dark cloud hanging over this Patriots team. If Gonzalez does opt to sit out, it would be a disastrous outcome for a Pats defense that already has its fair share of question marks entering Week 1.

Even so, Vrabel is doing everything in his power to keep his group focused on the task at hand.

“There’s no ‘Is it almost done? Is it not almost done?’ I don’t wanna deal with hypotheticals or speculation,” he said of the Gonzalez negotiations. “It’s important to focus on Seattle. And again, I do appreciate and understand what you guys feel like is important. I just know what’s Important for us is how we prepare and this is a good football team.

“This is an excellent football team. And I told our team if we don’t play better than we played the last time we played them, we’re going to struggle.”

The Seahawks dominated the Patriots in last season’s Super Bowl, 29-13. With most of Seattle’s stacked roster returning for its title defense, New England will need all the help it can get in the tough matchup.

Kickoff for Wednesday’s season opener is set for 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC.