Patriots' Christian Gonzalez gets bad news about his contract extension

New England Patriots star Christian Gonzalez and Seattle Seahawks star and fellow CB Devon Witherspoon are indirectly engaging in a bit of a staring contest.

Both are expected to reset the cornerback market with their new extension, but neither has gotten one.

While it's hard to imagine either entering the season without a new, very lucrative deal, one is waiting for the other to use his contract as a baseline. Notably, they're both represented by the same agency.

That should ease the fans' concerns about a deal ultimately getting done, but that doesn't mean it will happen smoothly. According to Boston Sports Journal editor Greg Bedard, the Patriots are likely to play the waiting game with their young defensive back.

The Patriots may not give Christian Gonzalez a new deal until training camp

“So what I have heard is that I would not expect any sort of update until training camp,” Bedard said on his podcast. “And if that's the case, I think that's where the Patriots are.”

Per Bedard, the ball will ultimately be on Gonzalez's court, and he'll have to decide whether he wants to engage in a back-and-forth and threaten to hold out until a deal gets done:

“I think they sort of like shrug and say, ‘We'll see where we are at at training camp.' And if that's the case, then I think it's going to drag into training camp. I think there's an easy, sort of, compromise from both sides. It just depends on how far Gonzalez wants to push this,” added Bedard.

This might not be the wisest strategy for New England. The longer the wait, the likelier it is that the Seahawks will move first and sign Witherspoon, thus driving Gonzalez's value up.

At the end of the day, it's almost impossible to believe the Patriots won't do right by their young defensive back, but power struggles are part of business, so it might be a while before they get on the same page.