If Christian Gonzalez doesn’t deliver on the hype, it won’t be because he isn’t built to succeed in the NFL.
Gonzalez, selected by the Patriots with the 17th pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, has prototypical size (6-foot-2) and athleticism (4.38 40-yard dash time) for a boundary cornerback. He also possesses the kinds of raw skills that make it easy to envision him making an instant impact in New England.
In fact, Gonzalez’s traits might be a little too perfect.
“If you were building a player in Madden, you’d create them very similar to Christian, especially for the corner position,” Gonzalez’s head coach at Oregon, Dan Lanning, recently told Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston. “He’s got length, he’s got size, he?s got speed. He carries that size very effortlessly and he can obviously run.”
Lanning also believes that Gonzalez is talented enough to excel in other phases.
“Those are skill sets you look for in a DB,” he said on Perry’s “Next Pats” podcast. “He’s got great ball skills. I honestly believe he could play wideout. He could be a returner as well, if somebody needed that.
“We didn?t ask him to do that, but we probably should have at times. But he has all the skill sets. So, if you’re designing a player, you design them within the mold of Christian.”
