Player Signing OFFICIAL - Gonzo signed to extension

[PatsFan2]

I'm always terrified of injury the year a contested FA signs a massive deal. Look at our record on that...
Bledsoe - burst lungs, T. Glenn - mental case, Colvin - hip, Adailus Thomas - arm, Dion Lewis - knee, Gilmore - quads, Jonnu Smith - nagging, Barmore - blood clots.

It would be catastrophic if Gonzo gets hurt this year. Both on the field and in the cap.

Very informative but I wouldn't post that: so that was the BB and Brady years...new regime Vrabel\Maye era.

 

[Dec54]

My question is why did this take so long? It was the contract everyone thought he would get. What was the hold up?

Large amounts of money

 

[PatsFan2]

How do you figure? He's 24.

• 2026 Season: 4th year of original rookie deal
• 2027 Season: 5th-year option (exercised in spring 2026)
• 2028 Season: Extension Year 1
• 2029 Season: Extension Year 2
• 2030 Season: Extension Year 3
• 2031 Season: Extension Year 4

Six years is like Forever for any player on a Team.

 

[imahobgoblin]

I have to recant on calling Kraft a cheap **** on this one. Never thought he'd do it. Glad he opened up his wallet and let George breathe a bit.

Oh don't worry. I am sure you did the same thing before we signed Milt and you will do it next year when we negotiating with Drake. In the insufferable way that some of you just are. You can't be happy unless you are complaining.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

In the other thread, I put together a very long list of draftees that Bill paid at the top of the league at their position. So even with BB they paid people.

In fact, if the AAV is right on this new contract, $33.75m, it's still less than what Belichick gave Gilmore as a % of the cap (11.4% in his last 2 years) and also in Revis's one year (12%), assuming the cap is going up to $330m next year as some have predicted.

We'll see about the signing bonus. The up front money has been the hangup all along.

Do people believe Witherspoon got more?

I agree it's a good number. It makes him the highest paid for a minute, and from what I can tell, doesn't include an exotic clause like "must be worth X% of Pats payroll" or whatever the rumors were claiming. Of course all eyes are on what we don't know, in terms of contract details.

In the other thread, the "cheap" complaint was about undifferentiated dollars spent, by which metric we're near or at the bottom of the league.

So if other teams took 10M and wiped their butts with it, that would make them 10M smarter for "spending more," which explains NE's terrible results (just 6 super bowl victories and 9 SB appearances in ~20 years).

I also see some guy saying that we were cheap under BB and now we're not. But we led the league in cap space left last year, the exact year we returned to the SB. (Of course, it was a matter of pushing money forward -- Hey, look, it came the year we paid Gonzo! Quelle surprise! I don't know about the magic "Cash spent" metric)

If we keep getting our guy, if we keep going to (and I hope soon winning) Super Bowls, I really don't care who cobbles together another "inept [or "cheap"] Patriots front office" opinion.

The fact is that the Pats are the class of the league at team building. There are lots of opinions out there that '25 was a fluke. I think we're back. And it's good to have Gonzo with us, at a basically Witherspoonian price.

One more thing:

"Oh man Kraft must have really been over a barrel to pay two days before the opener"? Why? Why not "Gonzo must have really been over a barrel," or just "Oh man, this was overhyped and they sure did play chicken for a while before signing."

Shoot, maybe it was "Neither side shall disclose the terms of the deal until 36 hours before the opening game." That would guarantee that Patriots football get an engagement bump while the extension is negotiated.

 

[patchick]

It is great to see this but what are the ones that call kraft cheap and called gonzo greedy and bring worth it going to say

“He had no choice,” “he was publicly shamed into it,” “Gonzo must have threatened to sit out,” “Vrabel must have threatened to quit,” etc. etc. Kraft Is Cheap has become a self-sealing argument, where evidence against it is not considered.
Self-Sealing Argument - Logically Fallacious

Anyway, congrats to Gonzo and I’m glad that’s all over.

 

[n1997y]

You mean beyond the unacceptable price a known welsher isn't going to be forced to pay for his nonexistent sausage sandwich during his imaginary trip to Gillette?

Man that sentence has more kinks than @fnordcircle and I put together.

I’ve seen plenty of word salad but never has word salad been tossed like that!

 

[PatsFanInVa]

How much for chicken cutlets?

Price Of Beer At Every NFL Stadium

After doing some digging, here’s what we found as the average price for a 16 oz beer at an NFL stadium over the last few years...

1075thefan.com

A Gillette beer is 8.58, compared with $16.49 here in Washington (or $13 in MetLife). Given the cost of living, Gillette and Fedex Field should be about the same, a big notch below a NY venue.

I feel like I'm on this self-inflicted Metro to Hell on the "cheap Train" and every station says "You have arrived at STFU, doors closing..."

 

[Rob0729]

We're football fans comparing what our team does to other teams.

The Krafts are in a dying business (Int'l Paper) and have made the bulk of their fortunes off the Patriots.

They spend less than most other teams.

Most other teams don't go through this kind of stuff.

So your use of the Nietszche quote is absurd.

Kraft's business isn't dying. The Kraft Group does packaging materials, not paper for newspapers and other legacy media that are dying out. And it is only a small part of the Kraft's portfolio. It was a major portion of his fortunes in the 90s and early 2000s. But not anymore. He is a billionaire many times over because of the Patriots and not paper companies.

And the Patriots spent the most in free agency in 2025. And they spent up there this past offseason.

Part of the reason they have spent less than other teams is because of the QB. They went from one QB on a rookie deal to another QB on a rookie deal. While other teams are paying $40-60 million a year on a QB (and many of these QBs getting this money are mid), Maye is making $10 million this year against the cap (actually $1 million in salary and $3 million roster bonus). In today's NFL, if you have a QB on a rookie deal, you are most likely spending towards the bottom of the league in spending in real dollars. That is going to change next year.

Kraft has always said he has never said no to spending money. Maybe in the 90s he did. But that was a different NFL. The salary cap really mattered back then. Teams weren't printing money like they are now.

And Kraft just got 3/4 of a billion in cash by selling a minority share of the team. I am sure a large chunk of that is going to pay inheritance tax when he passes. But he has no problem with money right now.

 

[yukon cornelius]

you mean a guy trying to build a franchise that wins, both short and long term, and a guy trying to maximize team profit, and a guy trying to get his client max $$, and a guy trying to make the most he can before his body fails took a long time to negotiate a contract

no ****?

 

[n1997y]

My question is why did this take so long? It was the contract everyone thought he would get. What was the hold up?

The end of the **** measuring contest wasn’t here yet. Now with the season opener tomorrow it’s close enough, and they’ve all had enough posturing and media mediated urinary Olympics. It was so predictable that nobody should’ve gotten their panties in a wad over it.

 

[Rob0729]

Bedard said two weeks ago that his sources said the deal would get done and it would happen the Monday before the opening game. He was kinda wrong because the deal was announced an hour after Monday ended.

There was never any doubt that it was going to get done. It was the media that was creating a controversy. If Gonzo thought he wasn't going to get paid eventually, he would have not shown up to practice or staged a sit in where he faked an injury to not practice or just dogged it at practice. The battles between Gonzo and Brown were the highlights at camp with Gonzo going full force.

Glad he is resigned. After an elite QB, a lockdown CB may be the toughest thing to find. The edge rusher might get more of the media attention, but they are more plentiful (although elite ones are still hard to get).

 

[n1997y]

You're assuming that the aggressor meant simply doing better than Stingley's deal.

We don't know what aggressive meant in the Spring.

Let's say the Patriots came in and offered him $32m and $110 guaranteed off the bat. Gonzalez would've been crazy not to take it since it was significantly higher than Stingley's deal.

Now that's aggressive.

In the end, I suppose I'm talking about a difference of $1.75m per year, so it's not a huge deal. But it is a little saved money off the cap.

It doesn’t matter.

Gonzo was not going to leave money on the table by signing in the Spring.

 

[Rob0729]

 

[PatsFan2]

Kraft's business isn't dying. The Kraft Group does packaging materials, not paper for newspapers and other legacy media that are dying out. And it is only a small part of the Kraft's portfolio. It was a major portion of his fortunes in the 90s and early 2000s. But not anymore. He is a billionaire many times over because of the Patriots and not paper companies.

And the Patriots spent the most in free agency in 2025. And they spent up there this past offseason.

Part of the reason they have spent less than other teams is because of the QB. They went from one QB on a rookie deal to another QB on a rookie deal. While other teams are paying $40-60 million a year on a QB (and many of these QBs getting this money are mid), Maye is making $10 million this year against the cap (actually $1 million in salary and $3 million roster bonus). In today's NFL, if you have a QB on a rookie deal, you are most likely spending towards the bottom of the league in spending in real dollars. That is going to change next year.

Kraft has always said he has never said no to spending money. Maybe in the 90s he did. But that was a different NFL. The salary cap really mattered back then. Teams weren't printing money like they are now.

And Kraft just got 3/4 of a billion in cash by selling a minority share of the team. I am sure a large chunk of that is going to pay inheritance tax when he passes. But he has no problem with money right now.

C Barmore's contract is the only interesting one left on the books. Uncle Milt is worth it: and OnWenu will be a FA at years end.

 

[rkarp1]

Bedard said two weeks ago that his sources said the deal would get done and it would happen the Monday before the opening game. He was kinda wrong because the deal was announced an hour after Monday ended.

There was never any doubt that it was going to get done. It was the media that was creating a controversy. If Gonzo thought he wasn't going to get paid eventually, he would have not shown up to practice or staged a sit in where he faked an injury to not practice or just dogged it at practice. The battles between Gonzo and Brown were the highlights at camp with Gonzo going full force.

Glad he is resigned. After an elite QB, a lockdown CB may be the toughest thing to find. The edge rusher might get more of the media attention, but they are more plentiful (although elite ones are still hard to get).

as usual, the media was mostly incorrect every step of the way...

 

[Rob0729]

I know he gets a lot of hate on this board, but I wonder how much Jonathan Kraft was influencing the Patriots move to paying high priced players. Jonathan has always been more progressive in how to run the team than his father who seems to be set in his ways a bit. Jonathan has been the one who has been pushing to make the Patriots more modernized and was part of his conflict with Belichick who also was set in his ways.

 

[patchick]

Here’s a thought: perhaps if a huge, complicated contract with broad implications were done quickly and easily, that would mean one side didn’t do its job.

 

[BTTA]

Kraft's business isn't dying. The Kraft Group does packaging materials, not paper for newspapers and other legacy media that are dying out. And it is only a small part of the Kraft's portfolio. It was a major portion of his fortunes in the 90s and early 2000s. But not anymore. He is a billionaire many times over because of the Patriots and not paper companies.

And the Patriots spent the most in free agency in 2025. And they spent up there this past offseason.

Part of the reason they have spent less than other teams is because of the QB. They went from one QB on a rookie deal to another QB on a rookie deal. While other teams are paying $40-60 million a year on a QB (and many of these QBs getting this money are mid), Maye is making $10 million this year against the cap (actually $1 million in salary and $3 million roster bonus). In today's NFL, if you have a QB on a rookie deal, you are most likely spending towards the bottom of the league in spending in real dollars. That is going to change next year.

Kraft has always said he has never said no to spending money. Maybe in the 90s he did. But that was a different NFL. The salary cap really mattered back then. Teams weren't printing money like they are now.

And Kraft just got 3/4 of a billion in cash by selling a minority share of the team. I am sure a large chunk of that is going to pay inheritance tax when he passes. But he has no problem with money right now.

Yep, last I checked, there's a lot of cardboard moving around the globe, and a lot of it stuff with cellulose based packaging material. And as you said, he's since diversified.

 

[JayNM]

this kind of post pisses me off

Adjust for Inflation you lazy bastard (the ""journalist"")