INSTANT REACTION: Christian Gonzalez returns to Patriots practice for first time since July 28th 👀

INSTANT REACTION: Christian Gonzalez returns to Patriots practice for first time since July 28th 👀

Curran, he was uh Gonzalez was limited today. Do you expect to see him on the field Sunday? Sure. I mean, I it depends how he responds today. I think that’s always what they generally say. Put him on the field, see how he responds to the work that he does, and then maybe add a little bit tomorrow and he gets two days of rest prior to Sunday’s game. So, it would certainly depend upon how that goes. He wouldn’t be on the field, I think, on Wednesday. That’s a key day, Mike, to be out there at the beginning of the week and for installation, not just out there for a peekab-boo. I’m out there for a minute or two and then off. The thing I noticed today is that we were only allowed to watch four periods and he really didn’t do anything. We saw him and stretch and yeah, he ran straight ahead a couple times, but it we’re not talking break neck speed here. Went over, handled the Jugs machine, wasn’t really moving much there. Sat out the the the shadow tackle drill and then there was a sort of a fumble drill that I mean, literally he took like one step. So, I don’t know that there’s any indication that he’s going to be ready to go. And to me, like they’ve got to ramp this up slowly. I mean, I’m sure he’s been doing stuff turning off to the side, but like, okay, now it’s like real football stuff. It’s turning. It’s cutting. It’s, you know, hey, this guy stutter stops. Can I can I handle that? Like, these are things that he’s going to have to build up to, and he hasn’t been doing it for seven weeks. Yeah, Kayla, I think the question would be if he is out there, what would you even expect him to be able to do? I mean, I don’t think he would be I suppose if he’s out there, he should be full go. I’m just not sure that’s where he’d be conditioning wise. I don’t think he would play all 40 plus whatever snaps. I think he would play one more. I think he would play maybe insert him in 20 snaps. Like have him be in rotation. I don’t think that he would be the full go in terms of hey, what’s Mike Vrabel’s mentality when it comes to everybody out there is violent. Is he at a point right now where he can play violent football? I would say no because we haven’t even seen him out there for a full week. Uh but I actually do expect him to play. Is it a guessing game at this point? Yes. But just based off of what Mike was saying, you know, kind of seeing him uh limited in practice and also what he may have been doing on the side that media doesn’t have access to, I would see him in some roles there. Curtain, you’ve said, listen, at this point, don’t push him, right? Like the not that these games don’t matter because they obviously all matter, but the one that really matters is a against Buffalo. If you were Mike Frabel, would you start him or would you, as Mike suggested, maybe slowly get him back? This is It’s a lot of crystal ball reading here. I don’t know how he feels. But how would you, what would you, if you were, if I know how he feels, if he says, “I feel pretty good,” I’d still give him 15 plays. And I don’t I talk to him at halftime. Say, “How do you feel?” And I’d say to him, “If you feel one tiny bit of tightness, you get over off the field and and sit down. I don’t want to hear any crap from you about, “Oh, I tried to play through it.” because these are games. Pittsburgh is a a non-divisional game. Uh the next one is a non-conference game against Carolina. You need him down the stretch. You’ve already lost two games. You haven’t played any decent pass defense. He’s a key component of your team. Um you’re not really He doesn’t seem like the most open and uh you know, willing to share forthcoming individual with us at least. Hopefully, he’s articulating to the coaching staff how he how he feels and and is open with them. Mike is he what would a potential return though of Gonzalez mean for this Patriots defense which you know has not looked great against the pass. So a full go healthy Christian Gonzalez is the guy that we saw last year for the first 16 games would make a a large difference. Although it’s not going to help the tackling and that’s not really what he’s here to do to tackle, but I think it would simplify some of their coverages and allow you to do as Rabbel suggested when they signed Carlton Davis. Play a lot of cat coverage. You got that cat, I got this cat. And if you can take away two players like that with two really good corners, it does make life a little bit easier. you certainly can attack um offenses uh with a multitude of players if you can trust the two guys on the outside to do their business. So to me it would make a difference. I’m just not sure we’re talking about the difference between a team that gave up 300 plus yards passing two weeks in a row. Kayla, the Patriots are a top what defense if Gonzalez is actually out there? I was going to say blitz, but if we’re doing numbers wise, maybe top 12, top 15. I’m not gonna put him in the top 10 category. It’s too early to do that, but I think to scheme-wise and strategy-wise, they were so blitzheavy week one and that didn’t help them because I think they did it in areas where they shouldn’t have. But, okay, now you have Carlton Davis alongside Christian Gonzalez out there. You can do more things. You can play a little bit more aggressive than you would without him. All right. Well, this is what Mike Vrabel has previously had to say about soft tissue injuries. This quote is from back in 2023 when he was still the head coach of the Titans. He said, quote, “We look at soft tissue injuries. We look at those soft tissue injuries of repeat offenders. It doesn’t take too hard to look and see. You know, Christian Fulton and David Long, they’re repeat offenders of soft tissue injuries. They have to figure out a way to train and act like this game’s played at a high speed. Kevin Bard hasn’t pulled a hamstring since we’ve been here. There’s a durability factor to playing professional football, and we should not overlook. That’s real. There’s guys that are durable and there are guys that are not. Do you think um Gardy that this plays into Mike Vrabel’s frustration that maybe he feels like hey we’ve got other guys who are out there aren’t suffering soft tissue. This is on you. This is on the work you’re putting in before, during, and after practice. It’s hard to know because everything that Mike has said about Christian publicly has been that he is working hard. He is rehabbing. He’s doing everything we’re asking him to do. He’s involved with the meetings. He’s involved with his teammates. He went on two road trips with the team even though when he wasn’t practicing just to be there with the guys. So to me, the public front of this is something happened and he’s doing everything he can to be ready. The other part of this is look, Christian Gonzalez is their best player period. End of story. Maybe Drake may becomes that. That’s the hope, right? But right now when you took you look at talent on the football team, Christian Gonzalez is your best guy. You don’t have him out there. I don’t know that you necessarily at this point want to be sort of butting heads on that yet. I don’t think they’re there yet. I don’t know if the relationship is there yet. But Karin, if if he is someone who off and this is a this so so far has been a one-time soft tissue injury, but if he becomes someone that is, in Mike’s words in 2023, a repeat offender, is that going to affect how they look at whether or not they’re going to extend and extend at a high price, the guy who right now is their on paper their best player? Yeah. I mean, you know, if you have a car with a continuous issue, even if you like the car and you know it performs at a high level, but it’s in the shop a lot, then you’re not going to want to spend as much on it because you don’t know if its dependability is going to last. To me, soft tissue injuries, and I’m no athletic trainer, but they are preventable. And they’re preventable by activity, by stretching. Look, people made as much fun as they wanted to of Alex Guerrero. He was a soft tissue expert. He was a pliability expert. And you go ahead and look back the 2018 Super Bowl. You know how many team guys went on IR that year? I think one Jawan Bentley and who was the running back? You can help me out. They had a clean injury report the entire freaking year. That’s one of the main reasons they won that Super Bowl in 2018. You look at Oakland right now. The Vegas Raiders, excuse me. Rare was on their sideline. How many hamstrings do they have? The Patriots have two right now that I can think of off the top of my head. Caleb Chason and um Christian Gonzalez. Soft tissue injuries. Some people might be prone to them. Others can work toward fixing their proness by hydration, by massage, by any number of things. ACLs are going to happen. Broken bones are going to happen. Mike Frael played with a cast on his arm in 2003 because he had a broken arm. So I I remember watching Taiw walk across the field in Pittsburgh when he tore, you know, something in his foot because he didn’t want to come off the field. I’ve seen a Keeb Tib. I’ve derel Rivas. I’ve seen any number of players play hurt. So it’s a fact of life that you’re going to be hurt. So, is it going to impact the availability of Christian Gonzalez if it becomes a habitual soft tissue issue? Certainly a soft tissue issue. You’re a pro, too. And at meaning Christian Gonzalez is a pro. And at this level is when you see guys like S Gardner get paid the way he did and you have a year knowing that you’re coming off a year prior where you had an ACL tear and you really only had one outing that was incredible, but you have to build on that to really hit your payday. even put the team aside and you’re looking at yourself individually and professionally and want to get that money and get your check, you want to be out there. So, I don’t think he’s milking this. I don’t think he’s so I think he has a very quiet demeanor. People have been talking about why is he smiling in this? He smiles like he’s just a smiley kind of maybe you could categorize as awkward, quiet kind of guy, but I just think that in terms of how he’s handling this, yes, does he need to get back out there when he’s ready? It’s time to go and you need to have your best player out there. I just can’t imagine that he would be milking or taking this thing lightly. Like that I think is what everybody’s mind goes to, right? Is whether or not he is maybe not milking it but holding back because he doesn’t want to one aggravate and and make this worse or two not play to his potential and not get paid. This is the silly thing about this in terms of the the the the money thing is crazy to me. He’s not eligible for a contract extension. He can’t get any money until the off season. So yeah, okay. Do you want to be fully healthy? Yes. But I think this is a conversation between player training staff and and the head coach saying, “Look, man, we don’t want you to go out there and then do what we talked about last week or two weeks ago where all of a sudden you have another setback because you tried to play through it or you tried to play through as Tom was talking about that little bit of tightness and all of a sudden that little bit of tightness becomes a bigger thing and then you’re gone for another eight weeks. That doesn’t do the team any good. What? Deal with this now.

Tom E. Curran, Kayla Burton and Mike Giardi of The Boston Sports Journal join Trenni Casey on Arbella Early Edition to offer reaction and analysis following Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez’s return to the practice field for the first time since July 28th due to a lingering hamstring injury. The group debate whether or not the corner should play on Sunday vs. the Steelers and what effect Gonzalez’s absence will have on the team’s thinking when it comes time to potentially offer him a massive extension this offseason.

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