Patriots still don't know if Christian Gonzalez will play Week 1, and he's not committing

The New England Patriots open the 2026 regular season on Wednesday night against the Seattle Seahawks in a rematch of last year's Super Bowl. While the defending champion Seahawks know their star cornerback, Devon Witherspoon, will be in the lineup after signing a new contract extension this summer, the Patriots can not say the same thing about their star cornerback, Christian Gonzalez.

Christian Gonzalez still not committing to playing in Week 1 as he seeks new contract

Gonzalez has maintained that he is still taking things on a day-to-day basis, and on Saturday would not commit to playing in Wednesday's game, telling Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald that he was only focusing on the upcoming practice that the Patriots had and nothing beyond that. 

He also responded to a question about contract talks potentially progressing by saying, "I don't know." 

Gonzalez has been seeking a new contract all offseason, but has not been able to come to terms on a new deal with the Patriots.

Witherspoon recently signed a four-year, $132 million contract with the Seahawks. 

It is likely that Gonzalez would get a larger deal if and when the two sides can agree. 

It is quickly becoming a messy situation as both he and the team seem happy to negotiate through the media. Patriots owner Robert Kraft has already said publicly that the team is prepared to make Gonzalez the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL. Gonzalez, however, reportedly has several fundamental disagreements on aspects of what the Patriots are offering. 

Gonzalez has been taking part in practice, which could be a good sign that he intends to play, but sitting out a game (or more) would be the one big card he still has to play for himself in this saga. The Patriots and Gonzalez still have a few days to figure this out, and it only takes one phone call and one offer to get things moving in the right direction. But they have had months to make that happen and it has not happened yet. Now the prospect of missing games is starting to put itself on the table.