The fact that cornerback Christian Gonzalez is already starting to get ready for his second NFL season is undoubtedly encouraging for the New England Patriots.
Due to a ruptured labrum, Gonzalez’s promising first season ended prematurely after just four games. Nevertheless, Gonzalez went back on the pitch recently for an offseason practice, more than three months after suffering that injury.
On Saturday, he uploaded a video of himself and his trainer, Christian White, to his Instagram account. Mike Kadlick of WEEI tweeted the video, in which Gonzalez appeared unfazed as he performed a series of drills. Gonzalez is undoubtedly focused on improving upon his promising debut campaign, despite its short duration.
Gonzalez, 21, was chosen by the Patriots with the No. 17 choice in the previous draft out of Oregon, and he rapidly established himself as a key player in New England’s secondary. This previous season, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound corner recorded 17 tackles, one sack, one interception, and three passes defensed. In the first two games, he played every defensive snap; in the third game, a road victory over the New York Jets, he played 98% of the defensive snaps.
Gonzalez appears to be recovering nicely from his shoulder injury. Gonzalez said on social media in October that “surgery went good,” and this workout video shows that he’s healing quickly and won’t be hampered when New England’s offseason programme begins.
