New England Patriots
“All I do and want to do is play football, so it was fun to finally get out there.”
The last few months haven’t been easy for Christian Gonzalez.
Fresh off of earning an All-Pro nod in his second full season with the Patriots, Gonzalez was poised to anchor a New England defense already expected to take a big step forward after a busy offseason.
Instead, the 23-year-old defensive back spent the last two months on the sideline as his teammates trudged ahead without him.
Gonzalez’s prep work going into the 2025 season was halted during training camp due to a hamstring strain. What was initially expected to be a mild injury that would rule him out of preseason action rolled into the fall.
It was hardly the start that both Gonzalez and the Patriots envisioned going into this year, with New England’s secondary hampered without their best player on the field for the first three games of the season.
But on Sunday, Gonzalez was finally afforded a clean slate — and a chance to put a frustrating summer in the rearview mirror.
For the first time since Dec. 28, 2024, Gonzalez was given the green light to return to the gridiron on Sunday afternoon against the Carolina Panthers.
Given his lack of reps during training camp, Gonzalez expected there to be some rust on Sunday.
But, those initial butterflies gave way to the excitement of getting back to the game he loves.
“Anything can be a little challenging [when] not doing it for a long time,” Gonzalez said postgame. “But at the end of the day I’ve done this since I was 5 years old. So my mindset going into the game today was not to really think of how long it’s been like that. Just, it’s another football game. Go out there and be my 5-year-old self. Go out there and have fun. Have that joy of just being back on the field.”
Gonzalez wasn’t exactly eased into Sunday’s eventual 42-13 win, logging 49 total snaps on defense while getting tasked with defending Carolina’s 2025 first-round pick, wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan.
According to Next Gen Stats, Gonzalez was matched up against the 6-foot-4 McMillan on 11 routes — giving up two catches off of three targets for 31 yards.
“Tet’s a great young player,” Gonzalez said of going up against McMillan. “I played him in college, so I knew a little bit about him. … We had a good battle, and it was fun. It was needed to see game speed again. I hadn’t been out there since a long time, so it was fun to get out there with Tet and all those guys.”
As the Patriots brace themselves for a daunting primetime matchup against Josh Allen and the Bills next Sunday, Gonzalez will be called upon to take away Allen’s top targets.
Gonzalez knows that he has a ways to go before getting back to his highest standard of play.
But, the corner was just happy to be back out on the field with his teammates on Sunday.
“It was great to get out there,” Gonzalez said. “All I do and want to do is play football, so it was fun to finally get out there. Get out there in a home game. The crowd was rocking. Being out there with the guys, it was a lot of fun.”
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