Cornerback pay has been on a rocket ship the last two offseasons. The number hovered around $25 million a year not long ago, jumped to $30 million last year, and then Trent McDuffie got the Rams to just past that at $31 million per with the Rams' four-year, $124 million extension. That felt like the new ceiling. It might last about a month.
Per Albert Breer, Gonzalez and Witherspoon are both lined up to top McDuffie's number, and it's not hard to see why. Both are 24-year-old former first-round picks who've already made Pro Bowls and play the position at a different speed than almost anyone else in the league. Teams don't get chances to lock up guys like this very often, and both franchises know it.
There's an added wrinkle here that makes this negotiation dance even messier: Gonzalez and Witherspoon share the same agent, Reggie Johnson. That means one guy is steering two of the most important corner negotiations in the league at the same time, and according to Breer's reporting, the expectation is Witherspoon gets his deal finished first. Seattle has a track record of moving fast on its young stars, and with the Seahawks' ownership situation reportedly changing in the next couple months, there's added incentive to get a number on the board before that happens.
Once Witherspoon signs, that number becomes the floor Gonzalez's camp points to in Foxborough, not the ceiling. Breer has reportedly floated a four-year, $140 million extension for Gonzalez with $75 million fully guaranteed at signing as one plausible shape of that deal. New England already exercised his fifth-year option back in April, so the Patriots control his rights through 2027 either way -- but locking him up now avoids an ugly stare-down as he inches closer to unrestricted free agency.
Both sides have said the right things publicly. Gonzalez told reporters this offseason he hopes something gets done, and Mike Vrabel has sounded optimistic about getting a deal across the finish line before the season starts. But talk is cheap until ink hits paper, and with $31 million a year already looking outdated before either contract is signed, this is shaping up to be one of the more expensive summers in cornerback history.