{"id":377673,"date":"2025-09-18T12:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/377673\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T12:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:36:12","slug":"patriots-teammates-amped-up-about-christian-gonzalez-return-he-plays-a-key-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/377673\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots teammates amped up about Christian Gonzalez return: \u2018He plays a key role\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christian Gonzalez has finally returned to practice<\/a>. Seven weeks after hurting his hamstring, the young cornerback made his comeback on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, his New England Patriots teammates were quite happy to see him back in action.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting,\u201d said safety Jaylinn Hawkins. \u201cWe all know Gonzo is shutdown, a playmaker. He\u2019s another playmaker on the team. It\u2019s hella exciting. I know he\u2019s really excited to be back. Nobody wants to miss games or be hurt or be injured. I\u2019m excited. My dawg\u2019s back. We\u2019re going to go out there and rock out.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the best cornerbacks in football and a second-team All-Pro selection in 2024, Gonzalez entered his third training camp as New England\u2019s undisputed No. 1 cornerback and arguably the best player overall on the roster. However, he had to exit the team\u2019s first full-pads practice of the summer in late July after getting banged up during an 11-on-11 drill.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez suffered his non-contact injury while matched up with wide receiver Stefon Diggs. Before Wednesday\u2019s practice, Diggs also spoke about the 23-year-old making his return.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, Zo is one of our stars, especially from that cornerback position,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like he plays a key role on our defense, and he\u2019s definitely one of the captains on this team. \u2026 From a personal view, we\u2019d be super excited to have him back. Hell of a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

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During Gonzalez\u2019s absence, the Patriots primarily turned to a mix of Alex Austin and Marcus Jones to help fill the starter role opposite Carlton Davis. The duo had its ups and downs during the first two games of the season, contributing to New England\u2019s pass defense being among the worst-ranked<\/a> in football right now.<\/p>\n

Getting Gonzalez back should help with that, as Davis pointed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to help our team and our defense, for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt could make my job easier because we\u2019re going to be getting off the field more and celebrate more when he makes plays. It should be fun. I\u2019m excited for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne side of the field can be shut down at any moment,\u201d added Hawkins. \u201cHe makes plays. Very, very sticky coverage. A natural \u2014 freak athlete, can cover, good technique, good ball skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not Gonzalez will return to the game day roster this week against the Pittsburgh Steelers will be seen, but the arrow is at least pointing up again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Gonzalez has finally returned to practice. Seven weeks after hurting his hamstring, the young cornerback made his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7897,11815,6032,7,7895,7885,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,57,531],"class_list":{"0":"post-377673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-alex-austin","9":"tag-carlton-davis","10":"tag-christian-gonzalez","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jaylinn-hawkins","13":"tag-marcus-jones","14":"tag-new-england","15":"tag-new-england-patriots","16":"tag-newengland","17":"tag-newenglandpatriots","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-patriots","20":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","21":"tag-stefon-diggs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115225335255777819","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377673","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=377673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}