The Official Gonzo Extension Watch Thread

JMC00 said:

My guess is the team wants him to play


Problem with Bedard's take is good CBs getting an extension before their 4th season is starting to be a trend. Stingley and Gardner got new contracts before their 4th year and Surtain got an extension before his 4th year.

Gonzalez or at least his agent/agency is sitting there going well these guys got it and my guy is as good or better. Also Gonzalez and Surtain are repped by the same agency so it's probably been a point used in talks.

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Well the system is pretty much designed that way

They get paid rookie contracts and if they're not worth it, they don't get the 5th year extension for a high salary. If they're worth that high salary even for one year, they're worth keeping beyond that so the teams have an incentive to bring the 5th year amount down from the $18 million Gonzales is due to get with an extension - note that Sauce Gardner only got a $14 million signing bonus and a $9 million cap hit for this year - but effectively is guaranteed $70 mil over 3 years

Keep in mind that Gonzo has only made $12 million over his career so far, so he can double that with his signing bonus on an extension while still saving the Pats up to $10 million on the cap next year compared to his 5th year option.

This is the way the NFL and players have designed it and for a player who is worth the 5 year extension, it's fair to both sides, which is why this gets done. And yes, his agent will probably wait until Witherspoon is signed, but they'll both just get a small raise over what Sauce Gardner got - though they'd better hope their contract isn't designed to be traded like his was.

I think they can do an extension that doesn't hit the massive top-dollar money until next year. It'd be like signing him to a big deal next offseason, but they do it now to appease the player and still give him a bump of ~$15M as a bonus now. But his base deal would be the same this year, and everything kicks in next year. That would make sense for both sides.
Also, I'm all in favor of establishing an injury clause in all longterm/gtd money deals - where if they miss X number of games, their annual salary is cut to a minimum injury amount. The guaranteed money thing needs to be adjusted league-wide. There's just no way a team should be forced to pay $30M to a player who doesn't play, and they still have to go sign & pay another FA to fill that spot.

I just hope this doesn't drag on and on.

You start sitting out days of camp due to contract issues those are days your body needs to prepare for a gruelling season that you can never get back, that's when you start picking up all these muscle injuries during the season.

jdlboot14 said:

I think they can do an extension that doesn't hit the massive top-dollar money until next year. It'd be like signing him to a big deal next offseason, but they do it now to appease the player and still give him a bump of ~$15M as a bonus now. But his base deal would be the same this year, and everything kicks in next year. That would make sense for both sides.
Also, I'm all in favor of establishing an injury clause in all longterm/gtd money deals - where if they miss X number of games, their annual salary is cut to a minimum injury amount. The guaranteed money thing needs to be adjusted league-wide. There's just no way a team should be forced to pay $30M to a player who doesn't play, and they still have to go sign & pay another FA to fill that spot.

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Thats one sided nonsense. It protects the team by raping the player.

You’re also ignoring the common occurrence of guarantees for injury in contracts. Your suggestion flies in the face of that common practice.

Why should anyone who gets hurt doing their job be penalized by losing their livelihood?

It’s not the player’s fault they got injured. The team profits from their performance, if that performance causes them to be injured the team should compensate them for it. They’re paid a lot because their performance is valued highly by the team, if they lose their ability to perform because of injury they should be rightfully compensated for their lost wages somehow. Maybe it should fall on the league, sort of a workmen’s comp fund (there’s a precedent that workers shouldn’t suffer financial loss due to otj injury, btw), but the player shouldn’t be penalized for getting hurt. They certainly neither wanted nor tried to be injured.

Perhaps Vrabel is waiting on additional signings until this issue is addressed. We might need to give Gonzalez a $20M bonus to play this year while he waits for an extension to be negotiated.

logic dictates Gonzo's agent is slow walking this deal.
the agent reps both Gonzo and fellow needs to be signed CB Witherspoon.
the Seahawks are for sale, coming off a SB win, and want all their ducks in a row to make the sale
two of those ducks were their young WR and CB
WR signed. CB next.
after Witherspoon resets the CB market, Gonzo is up next to reset it again

Seems like we have conflict of interest here. The agent represents both Witherspoon and Gonzalez. Both CB's would like the other to sign first so they can then try to reset the market. You know they are both asking their Agent what the status is for the other CB.

TheRainMaker said:

Seems like we have conflict of interest here. The agent represents both Witherspoon and Gonzalez. Both CB's would like the other to sign first so they can then try to reset the market. You know they are both asking their Agent what the status is for the other CB.

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Its about Seattle being for sale and wanting Sitherspoon signed before that.

rochrist said:

Its about Seattle being for sale and wanting Sitherspoon signed before that.

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That is definitely affecting the situation.

I know that @JoeSixPat mentioned Sauce Gardner, but Joe missed the new deal that McDuffie signed. That deal came AFTER Gardner's.

Yes, Gardner and McDuffie got relatively low Signing bonuses. However, look at their guaranteed money.

Gardner got $84.65M in total guarantees with $120M in new money. McDuffie's contract had $100M in total guarantees with 124M in new money. (Note: Some of the guaranteed money listed by OTC is from the previous Jets contract).

I think that Gonzalez and Witherspoon are looking at 4 or 5 year deals that pay them $35M-40M AAV with $112M-160M in guarantees.

Now, I'm sure there are going to be some people who explode over those numbers, but McDuffie's contract had 80% of it's total guaranteed. And that is what I'm figuring for both Gonzo and Witherspoon

And those numbers are why I'm saying that the Pats need to carry over as much money this year as possible to cover that Contract AND replacing/re-signing the numerous Free Agents that the Pats currently have after the 2026 season. Not to mention getting ready to pay Maye's contract which could see him as the first $67.5M-80M AAV QB. The only team the Pats really need to work about screwing up the pay scale is the Bears when they try to get Willams to an extension. The Pats NEED to be the ones in control of that and not let the Bears and Willams dictate things. The one thing going for the Pats, in this respect, is that the Bears are likely to shed 3-5 big time contracts after the 2026 season to free up money.

n1997y said:

Thats one sided nonsense. It protects the team by raping the player.

You’re also ignoring the common occurrence of guarantees for injury in contracts. Your suggestion flies in the face of that common practice.

Why should anyone who gets hurt doing their job be penalized by losing their livelihood?

It’s not the player’s fault they got injured. The team profits from their performance, if that performance causes them to be injured the team should compensate them for it. They’re paid a lot because their performance is valued highly by the team, if they lose their ability to perform because of injury they should be rightfully compensated for their lost wages somehow. Maybe it should fall on the league, sort of a workmen’s comp fund (there’s a precedent that workers shouldn’t suffer financial loss due to otj injury, btw), but the player shouldn’t be penalized for getting hurt. They certainly neither wanted nor tried to be injured.

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In addition to your suggested WkComp fund, I could see a way it COULD be implemented….

If part of the contract is an injury insurance policy for any injury > ~8 games. Maybe both player &team “pay” the premiums 50-50, and the if happens his salary comes off the cap cause he is getting an insurance payment, not salary.

Gonzo is worth whatever it takes to sing him.

1960Pats said:

Gonzo is worth whatever it takes to sing him.

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Does anyone else see the irony in Christian Gonzalez's nickname in this contract impass?

DaBruinz said:

That is definitely affecting the situation.

I know that @JoeSixPat mentioned Sauce Gardner, but Joe missed the new deal that McDuffie signed. That deal came AFTER Gardner's.

Yes, Gardner and McDuffie got relatively low Signing bonuses. However, look at their guaranteed money.

Gardner got $84.65M in total guarantees with $120M in new money. McDuffie's contract had $100M in total guarantees with 124M in new money. (Note: Some of the guaranteed money listed by OTC is from the previous Jets contract).

I think that Gonzalez and Witherspoon are looking at 4 or 5 year deals that pay them $35M-40M AAV with $112M-160M in guarantees.

Now, I'm sure there are going to be some people who explode over those numbers, but McDuffie's contract had 80% of it's total guaranteed. And that is what I'm figuring for both Gonzo and Witherspoon

And those numbers are why I'm saying that the Pats need to carry over as much money this year as possible to cover that Contract AND replacing/re-signing the numerous Free Agents that the Pats currently have after the 2026 season. Not to mention getting ready to pay Maye's contract which could see him as the first $67.5M-80M AAV QB. The only team the Pats really need to work about screwing up the pay scale is the Bears when they try to get Willams to an extension. The Pats NEED to be the ones in control of that and not let the Bears and Willams dictate things. The one thing going for the Pats, in this respect, is that the Bears are likely to shed 3-5 big time contracts after the 2026 season to free up money.

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Good points - yeah, Sauce Gardner's contract was... well, kind of weird in that it was heavily backloaded to allow for a trade by keeping his salary low, and his 2026 cap hit is a reasonable $10 million (even though I think he's effectively getting $25 million cash this year)

There's also an "out" for Indy after 2028, leaving them paying $71 million over 4 years with an $8 million cap hit if they don't think he's worth the $36 million a year after that

So if I'm Gonzo's agent I really don't want to follow that template, but actually if you look at his and McDuffie's signing bonus, they're both in that $14 million range and he too has a $10 million 2026 cap hit. But he did much better on the guaranteed money and we'll see if Gonzo splits the difference on that.

That being said, McDuffie's also has an out after 2029 which would result in him getting $107 million over 4 years - so despite the claims of $31 million AAV, McDuffie could be looking at $27 mil AAV (still pretty huge) compared to $18 million AAV for Gardner

If Gonzo does want bragging rights, I'm sure they can do that by tacking on an extra year with a non-guaranteed outrageous salary in the last year, with a 4 year out that I'd guess winds up being more than Gardner but less than McDuffie - and I think Gardner really got short changed earning $10 mil a season less than McDuffie in terms of guaranteed money over 4 years

But these, I'm sure, are all talking points of the team and agent in negotiations, with the Pats also looking at extending Maye next season with high cap hits after that, so I could actually see them front-loading his contract while they have more flexibility with cap space pre-Maye

That strikes me as a win-win for player and team - if it's guaranteed money, no reason not to pay it in a way that factors in Maye and other extensions

So maybe it winds up being a bigger signing bonus, but a true guaranteed 4-year AAV prior to an "out" hopefully in the low $20s million

I see ego working its way into the AAV of all of these contracts, and I'm not sure if Gonzo is the type of guy who feels a need to say he's the highest paid CB in the history of the NFL like McDuffie did, but that's as simple as adding an extra non-guaranteed year with an inflated salary they'll probably never get.

So maybe they call this a $125 million extension to make his ego happy even though he may not collect it - but I'm not sure he's going to get more guaranteed than McDuffie, but a lot more than Gardner if his agent isn't an idiot