{"id":211348,"date":"2025-07-16T10:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T10:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/211348\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T10:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T10:27:10","slug":"sauce-gardner-jets-extension-gives-patriots-baseline-for-christian-gonzalez-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/211348\/","title":{"rendered":"Sauce Gardner Jets extension gives Patriots baseline for Christian Gonzalez deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFL cornerback market has been reset once again. After record deals signed by Jaycee Horn and Derek Stingley Jr. earlier this offseason, Sauce Gardner has now become the highest-paid player in the NFL at the position.<\/p>\n

Gardner signed a four-year, $120.4 million contract extension<\/a> with the New York Jets<\/a> on Monday that, at an annual value of $30.1 million per year, catapulted him right past Stingley Jr. to the top of the list. The pact also includes a reported $60 million in guarantees added on top of the $25 million already embedded into his current deal.<\/p>\n

Gardner has earned an extension of record-breaking proportions. While he has not been part of a winning season since entering the NFL as a first-round draft pick in 2022, he has played at a high level since the get-go and throughout his career so far.<\/p>\n

Sounds familiar?<\/p>\n

The New England Patriots<\/a>\u2019 own A-grade cornerback had a similar career as Gardner since arriving in Foxborough as a first-round pick one year later. While he did miss a majority of his 2023 rookie season due to a shoulder injury, Christian Gonzalez has been one of the best cornerbacks in football over the past two seasons. Last year, he even was voted All-Pro over the now-highest-paid cornerback in league history.<\/p>\n

Heading into 2025, the Patriots still have up to three years of control over Gonzalez\u2019s contract. His four-year rookie deal runs through 2026, with the fifth-year option allowing the organization to lock him up for an addition season.<\/p>\n

That said, Gonzalez does become eligible for an extension starting next spring (which is also when the decision about his fifth-year option<\/a> needs to be made). For both the culture-establishing Patriots as well as for the 23-year-old himself, contract negotiations beginning sooner than later would make some sense.<\/p>\n

And if they do, Gardner\u2019s contract could serve as a baseline for the two sides. Gonzalez, after all, has performed at a similarly high level albeit in a smaller sample size. If he can build on his 2024 performance in 2025, however, there is no question he should be confident asking for a similar payday.<\/p>\n

The Patriots need to be prepared for that question to come up as early as next offseason. And if it does, Gardner and the Jets might just have provided a blueprint of sorts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL cornerback market has been reset once again. After record deals signed by Jaycee Horn and Derek…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[44458,1808,2377,7149,7,23,29,2586,1258,6217,226,1167,249,1129,13788,2326,2094,6,208,724,725,8141],"class_list":{"0":"post-211348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-baseline","9":"tag-christian","10":"tag-deal","11":"tag-extension","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-for","14":"tag-front-page","15":"tag-gardner","16":"tag-gives","17":"tag-gonzalez","18":"tag-jets","19":"tag-new-england","20":"tag-new-england-patriots","21":"tag-new-england-patriots-opinion-analysis","22":"tag-new-england-patriots-salary-cap","23":"tag-newengland","24":"tag-newenglandpatriots","25":"tag-nfl","26":"tag-patriots","27":"tag-pats","28":"tag-pulpit","29":"tag-sauce"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114862440166258299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211348","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=211348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}