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Albert Breer on Christian Gonzalez’s Contract, Cowboys’ Cap Space and Australia Travels
Sep 4, 2026
Albert Breer on Christian Gonzalez’s Contract, Cowboys’ Cap Space and Australia Travels
Sep 4, 2026
Transcript
They want to be able to win the deal.
They want to be able to do good business.
All right.
Welcome in to the report for Tuesday, September 8th, just one day left until the kickoff of the 2026.
NFL season and as we prepare to kick off, a big piece of contract news comes down overnight, less than 48 hours from the New England Patriots kicking off their season, the Seattle Seahawks opening their title defense.
Patriots star corner, Christian Gonzalez agrees to a 4-year, $135 million extension with $102 million in guarantees.
Now, until we have the real nitty-gritty of the deal, and I'll be working on that today.
It's tough to say whether or not the Patriots are the winners here, Gonzalez is the winner here.
A lot of that's gonna come down to how much money is in the first two years, how much is fully guaranteed at signing, when the injury guarantees vest is fully guaranteed.
We get to that point, we'll be able to compare it to Devin Witherspoon, we'll be able to compare it to, uh, Trent McDuffie.
We'll be able to compare it to Denzel Ward, what those guys were able to do earlier in the offseason.
Um, and we'll get to the effect on the corner market in a minute.
For the New England Patriots, this is a very good piece of news.
Again, less than 48 hours until kickoff.
They have had a tumultuous offseason.
A lot of things have gone sideways over the course of the last 6 months.
We don't need to get into all of that.
But now, they finally get some good news.
This, this, this piece of business, which was the biggest piece of business, they had to do this offseason gets done.
There were a lot of questions about it and a lot of noise up here where I live in Boston about why it was so difficult to get done.
You see the other team in this game, they had 3 young homegrown players that they got done.
At the top of the market, this calendar year alone in premium positions.
Left tackle Charles Cross got done in January, receiver Jackson Smith Njigba got done in March, and then corner Devin Witherspoon got done in August.
And that is in addition to the deal that they did for Leonard Williams, their star defensive lineman last week.
So why was this so difficult to do?
Well , a piece of it was that the representation for Gonzalez was the same as the representation for Witherspoon.
They made the conscious decision.
That Seattle was more likely to move the market, so they got the Seattle deal done first.
That was a piece of it.
I also think there is and has been this feeling for, from New England that, that, that, that, that, that at the highest levels of that organization.
They want to be able to win the deal.
They want to be able to do good business, whether that's right or wrong, that's what string can string these things out a lot of the time, and, you know, when you have two sides standing their ground, and that was very much the situation here.
There was a point, I mean, again, just a couple of days ago, where I think Christian Gonzalez felt like he wasn't being treated um the way that a lot of other star players in the league are treated.
You know, but you get closer to a deadline, it makes sense for the team to have one of their very best players in the fold and in the right state of mind going into the year.
It makes sense for the player, of course, to get that financial security before he starts putting himself in harm's way.
So a deal gets done.
And again, this becomes the precursor for an even bigger deal that's on the horizon for the Patriots, and that'll be the deal for quarterback Drake May.
Drake May, of course, had a front row seat and watching all of this and saw how the Patriots handled the situation with Christian Gonzalez.
That will be him next year when he is eligible for a new contract.
In the same way that Christian Gonzalez had other corner deals that were gonna affect his deal with Devin Witherspoon out there, with um with Trent McDuffie out there as young players that were getting their second contracts.
Be the same thing next year with Drake May, not the only player from his draft class at that position that's eligible for a new deal.
There'll be Caleb Williams, there'll be Bo Nix , there'll be Jaden Daniels, depending on what sorts of years those guys have.
In addition to that, you've got Lamar Jackson, who presuming he doesn't do anything over the course of the next week or in season.
He'll be going into a contract year in 2027.
So, an interesting one to follow there and again, this becomes a precursor now for that deal in 2027.
As for the effect this has on the corner market overall, um, it's at least interesting to watch, um, where this has gone.
We have not seen the jump at the corner market that we saw with edge rushers.
And if you go back to March of 2025, Miles Garrett got the market there to $40 million per year.
Micah Parsons did a deal last summer, at the end of last summer at $46 million per year.
That was right after he was traded from the Cowboys to the Packers.
Then Aiden Hutchinson got his deal done in season.
He was, of course, coming off a broken leg of $45 million per year, and then the market jumped again to $50 million per year with what Will Anderson made.
So, corners, the numbers just haven't jumped as fast.
Derrek Stingley was the last real market mover, taking the corner market from the mid-20s all the way up to 30.
So he jumped to 30 with his deal with the Texans in March of 2025, around the same time the Miles Garrett deal got done.
Then you had Sauce Gardner at $30.
1 million.
Then you had Trent McDuffie this offseason at $31 million after he was traded from the Chiefs to the Rams.
Then you have Denzel Ward at $31.
1 million then you have Devin Witherspoon at $33 million and now you have Christian Gonzalez at $33.
75 million.
So for one reason or another, the corner market hasn't.
Move quite as quickly.
Next year, you know, we could have a market correction for Patrick Certan, who's widely seen as the best corner in football.
You also could have a deal for Quinnon Mitchell.
The Eagles have typically been very, very aggressive about getting those deals done.
Um, and he's not the only corner in his class that's gonna be up for a deal.
In fact, depending on how you slot Cooper Dejean, if you see him as a nickel, if you see him as a safety, if you see him as a corner, however, you look at him, he's gonna be another defensive back that's gonna be out there and looking for a new contract in, in 2027.
There are some guys that could be affected by everything that happened on the corner market this offseason.
All right, our second topic, and this is a little bit of a curveball.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said yesterday they're all-proguard Tyler Smith has undergone surgery.
Um, and this was a lingering wrist issue that he had over the course of training camp.
It is now taken care of.
However, it will sideline him for 4 to 6 weeks.
He is going on injured reserve.
And this to me tests what was a very big question for the Cowboys coming into training camp and through training camp.
A lot of people love where the where the Cowboys are when you're talking about their starting 22.
And I'm there too.
I picked the Cowboys and there are predictions that come out this week and again, take my predictions with a grain of salt, not the best at predicting these things.
Um, but I picked the Cowboys to win the NFC East.
I think their starting 22 is excellent.
One of the best groups of starting players in the league, one of the top layers of top talent in the league.
Lots of reasons to be optimistic.
The caveat there is that there's not a ton of depth on that roster, and now that depth is going to be tested right away with one of their very best players, Tyler Smith again, an all-proguard, one of the best guards in all of football going down.
And you're gonna have TJ Bass, who has 10 career starts now starting opposite Tyler Booker at center.
On top of that, you've got the question at left tackle.
Now Tyler Geiton had a really good camp.
He solidified that position.
They traded for Broderick Jones, but that wasn't because of Geiton, it was actually because of the other uncertainty on the other side with Terrence Steele.
Left tackle, Tyler Geiton.
Does he sustain the performance we saw over the summer ?
You've got Terrence Steele over on the other side.
Now suddenly, there are more questions on the offensive line that you had before.
And again, this goes back to the question of depth .
So do they move some pieces around?
Are they gonna stick with TJ Bass for the full time that Tyler Smith is out?
All of those are fair questions.
And we'll get a good chance to see now how the coaching staff was able to develop talent over the course of training camp because that was a big thing for them internally was how do we develop some depth here because we really can't afford many losses.
TJ Bass will be an early sign, an early signal of the job that they did developing some of that depth.
Down the roster.
Finally, our third topic for today, Tua Tungavaloa has been named the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons.
Actually happened yesterday.
Kevin Stefansky waiting all the way up until 6 days before game day to inform Tua and Michael Pennox and Cooper Rush, who's the starting quarterback, was gonna be now an interesting twist on all of this.
And I think this is important because this indicates they're thinking on it.
Is that opener against the Steelers on Sunday.
You're gonna have Tuatungavaloa as the starter, you're gonna have Cooper Rush as the backup, and you're gonna have Michael Pennox inactive.
That is very, very relevant because it says where it shows you where they are with Michael Pennox right now.
This was not Tua beating out Michael Pennox.
In fact, it's been a very bumpy summer for Tuatungavaloa.
However, he has the most experience of the guys available to them.
He has the most experience of anyone in that quarterback room.
He probably gives them the best chance to tread water at least until Michael Pennox is ready.
Now, Michael Pennox has been fully cleared for action.
So, They could have dressed him on Sunday, like medically, they're there.
But they want to be careful with him bringing back, bringing him back from injury.
He, of course, has a long history of injuries.
He was only cleared on August 22nd for 11 on 11.
Um, so there isn't a ton of experience running Kevin Stefansky's offense in an 11 on 11 setting.
Um, and with all of those factors mixed in.
They felt like it made the most sense for now to go to Tuatungavaloa, but I would not look at this as Tuatungavaloa beating out Michael Pennox.
I would be surprised if Michael Pennox doesn't get a shot somewhere in the front half of the season and doesn't become the starting quarterback somewhere in the front half of the season.
Because I don't think Tua did enough over the course of training camp in the preseason games, everything else.
You know, that's based not just on Falcons people, but people who coached against them, people who saw him in the joint practice settings.
I, I just don't think Tua has done enough to prevent the Falcons from wanting to get a good long look at Michael Pennck, so it helps them plan for 2027.
Remember, it's a new regime in there now.
Matt Ryan, president of football, Ian Cunningham, general manager, Kevin Stefansky is the head coach.
You're, you've got some, some, some talent on the roster.
You've also got some age on the roster.
It's the oldest roster in football, believe it or not.
That has to do with an aging offensive line, some older pieces that they brought in to plug holes.
They do have some younger talent on the roster, but it's kind of an.
Awkward place that they're at from a roster standpoint when you don't have a starting quarterback, but they're gonna ultimately have to decide where they're going at that position going forward.
And they're gonna have to make that decision in March based on what they see over the course of the next 4.5 months.
So, no, it wasn't Ryan and Cunningham and and Stefansky that drafted Pennox.
However, Pennox has a lot of talent.
Talent Pennox was the 8th pick in the draft, and they gotta make a decision.
Let's say they got a pick in the top 10.
I'm not saying they're gonna be terrible, like just say hypothetically they got a top pick in the top 10.
They could have a very good quarterback class available to them at that point.
They also could have the opportunity, if they feel like they're OK at quarterback, to draft a Jeremiah Smith.
Or a Colin Simmons, or Dylan Stewart, or a Leonard Moore, you get the picture.
It's expected to be a very, very, very good draft in 2027, and I don't want to push things that far forward when we haven't even played a game yet this season.
But I think that underscores why they have to get a look at their quarterbacks, and they specifically have to get a look at Michael Pennox, because he's the one guy on that roster right now that you could look at and say, maybe he can be the long-term answer.
I don't think the other guys are.
The other guys would be stopgaps to get to 2027.
So at some point, I think you're gonna see Michael Pennox, it just won't be.
In week one.
Appreciate you guys coming out.
Excited for the season to be here.
As always, you can get your get your questions in down below, get your comments in down below here on the YouTube page.
You can also get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert Arreer on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram.
We got a mailbag edition for you tomorrow.
So if you leave some questions here on YouTube, maybe I'll get to them.
We'll talk to you guys then.
