{"id":196478,"date":"2025-07-10T15:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T15:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/196478\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T15:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T15:47:10","slug":"patriots-defender-makes-nfls-top-100-players-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/196478\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots defender makes NFL&#8217;s Top 100 Players of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After failing to have a single player crack the NFL Top 100 list last year, the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/new-england-patriots\/348\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:New England Patriots;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">New England Patriots<\/a> were back on the board Thursday with the news of cornerback Christian Gonzalez landing on the 2025 list.<\/p>\n<p>NFL.com revealed that the All-Pro cornerback ranked at No. 84 among his peers in the league.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Gonzalez only played in four games as a rookie, and he looked to be on the verge of breaking out before going down with a season-ending shoulder injury. In his first full season last year, the former Oregon standout and first-round draft pick finished with 59 tackles, 11 pass deflections, two interceptions and one fumble recovered for a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;His smoothness and his ability to get downhill on breaks, it seems like even when he might not have a step, his closing speed is next level,&#8221; Baltimore Ravens All-Pro corner Marlon Humphrey said, when talking about Gonzalez.<\/p>\n<p>An argument could be made that Gonzalez hasn&#8217;t gotten the recognition he deserves as an elite player, but make no mistake, other teams and players around the league are paying attention.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You know, a lockdown corner for the Patriots, and a guy who&#8217;s a great player. So he has a bright future in this league, and I&#8217;m excited to watch that,&#8221; said <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/arizona-cardinals\/355\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Arizona Cardinals;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Arizona Cardinals<\/a> Pro Bowl tight end Trey McBride.<\/p>\n<p>Gonzalez could have been higher on this list, but his inclusion was a great start. He has only played in one full NFL season, which means this is only the tip of the iceberg of his true potential.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s likely only a matter of time before Gonzalez becomes a household name.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Patriots Wire on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Patriots_Wire?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Twitter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PatriotsWire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/patriotswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/patriots\/2025\/07\/10\/patriots-christian-gonzalez-makes-nfl-top-100-players-2025\/84534439007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Patriots defender makes NFL&#039;s Top 100 Players of 2025;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Patriots defender makes NFL&#8217;s Top 100 Players of 2025<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After failing to have a single player crack the NFL Top 100 list last year, the New England&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[390,117,6032,7,7142,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,6042],"class_list":{"0":"post-196478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-arizona-cardinals","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-christian-gonzalez","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-marlon-humphrey","13":"tag-new-england","14":"tag-new-england-patriots","15":"tag-newengland","16":"tag-newenglandpatriots","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-patriots","19":"tag-trey-mcbride"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114829724845607758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}