The Patriots will exercise the fifth-year option on Christian Gonzalez’s contract, according to coach Mike Vrabel, but the team is negotiating a long-term extension for the cornerback.
Gonzalez would make $18.1 million for the 2027 season on the fifth-year option.
“Yes,” Vrabel said about picking up Gonzalez’s option, via Mark Daniels of masslive.com. “If we haven’t picked it up, we should pick it up.”
Exercising the fifth-year option was a foregone conclusion, but the Patriots want Gonzalez signed beyond 2027.
“We want to make sure that we draft extremely well, and then we identify the guys that we want to keep with us and that have earned long-term extensions with us,” Vrabel said. “And Christian, Gonzo is certainly one of those players, but I can’t comment on the negotiations.”
Gonzalez, the 17th overall pick in 2023, made second-team All-Pro in 2024 and the Pro Bowl in 2025. He has totaled 145 tackles, two interceptions, 24 pass breakups and a sack in three seasons.
Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman said some variation on “A.J. Brown is a member of the Eagles” in response to multiple questions about a possible trade involving the wide receiver this week, but those replies haven’t done much to quite speculation that the team will trade him later this year.
Waiting until after June 1 to make a trade is beneficial to the Eagles’ cap situation and most conjecture about where they’d look to send Brown has centered on the Patriots. Brown played for Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel in Tennessee and New England has an opening at the top of their receiver depth chart after parting ways with Stefon Diggs this month.
The prospect of New England trading for Brown came up again during Vrabel’s media session at the league meetings in Arizona on Tuesday. Per multiple reporters, Vrabel said that the Patriots will “try to do everything we can to strengthen our roster” and that they will look at all avenues to making those improvements.
That could signal that the Patriots will be adding to their receiving corps in next month’s draft, but any addition from that pool is unlikely to put an end to chatter about Brown going from a member of the Eagles to a member of the Patriots by the time Week 1 rolls around.
The NFL has picked the 2026 Hard Knocks team. It also has picked the 2027 Hard Knocks team.
For the first time ever, the NFL has announced the subjects of the long-running HBO docuseries for the next two installments. Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, it will be the Seahawks in 2026 and the Patriots in 2027.
Neither team has ever served as the subject of the show. And both, obviously, made it to Super Bowl LX.
Once upon a time, the NFL exempted from Hard Knocks consideration any team that had made it to the playoffs within the past two seasons. That factor is obviously now long gone.
The NFL also started in-season Hard Knocks several years ago. In recent seasons, it has focused on an entire division. Presumably, the 2026 installment won’t focus on the NFC West — and the 2027 version won’t center on the AFC East.
The league had a one-year run of offseason Hard Knocks. It was so revealing (in a bad way) for the Giants that the experiment ended after one year.
The Eagles and Patriots have been linked in trade speculation this offseason, but the two teams have not come together to make a deal this month.
They have been able to agree on something else, however. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said on Monday that his team will hold joint practices with Mike Vrabel and the Patriots during training camp this summer. Those practices will take place in New England.
Sirianni’s announcement came during a session that also saw him echo General Manager Howie Roseman’s answer to questions about wide receiver A.J. Brown’s status. Roseman said on Sunday that Brown remains on the Eagles’ roster when asked about trading the wideout and Sirianni said the same thing on Monday.
Trading Brown after June 1 would work out better for the Eagles for cap purposes and the Patriots have frequently been cited as a likely landing spot due to their need at the position as well as Brown’s history with Vrabel from Tennessee. If the trade does go down, Sirianni and company will still have a chance to catch up with the receiver in August.
An Eagles’ trade of wide receiver A.J. Brown has felt “inevitable” since March. The question seems more of when, not if, with a post-June 1 trade a possibility.
Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman revealed nothing on Sunday.
“I understand that there’s interest in the A.J. Brown story,” Roseman said, via Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philly. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a home under a rock. But my answer to any question on A.J. Brown is that A.J. Brown is a member of the Eagles. From my perspective, anything you ask me about A.J. Brown, I’m going to go right back to that answer. But I understand the interest. I put on TV and I see that there’s interest. But my answer is A.J. Brown is a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.”
Roseman proceeded to answer multiple questions about Brown with the same answer: “A.J. Brown is a member of the Eagles,” according to Eliot Shorr-Parks of WIP94.com.
The Eagles signed veteran wide receiver Hollywood Brown to a one-year, $5 million deal in March. He would join DeVonta Smith as the team’s top two wide receivers if Brown departs.
The Eagles also signed free agent wideout Elijah Moore.
The Patriots have been the favorite to eventually land Brown, who has not made the Pro Bowl in either of the past two seasons. He had 1,079 receiving yards in 2024 and 1,003 receiving yards in 2025.
