Christian Gonzalez comes from a long line of athletes. Here’s what to know about the newest Patriot.
Gonzalez is the first defensive back selected by New England in the first round since Devin McCourty in 2010.
After trading back three spots in a draft-day swap with the Steelers, the Patriots selected Oregon cornerback Christian Gonzalez with the 17th pick of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Gonzalez is the first defensive back selected by New England in the first round since Devin McCourty in 2010. He’s also the first Oregon defensive back to be selected in the opening round since 1996.
Here’s five things to know about the newest Patriot:
Gonzalez hails from a bloodline of star athletes
The 6-foot-1 197-pound Gonzalez comes from a long lineage of impressive athletes, beginning with his father, Hector, who stands at 6-foot-9 and played college basketball at UTEP.
His eldest sister, Melissa, was an All-American hurdler at Texas and represented Columbia in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. His sister Samantha was Texas’ Gatorade track and field athlete of the year in 2015 and set a 300-meter hurdle state record, and later was a second-team All-American at the University of Miami.
Gonzalez’s athleticism was on full display at the NFL Combine, where he finished in the 95th percentile in the broad jump, 96th percentile in the vertical jump, and 89th percentile in the 40-yard dash.
He did not play varsity football until his junior year
Gonzalez spent two years on the junior varsity team at Creekside Community High School in north-central Texas before transferring to The Colony High School in the Dallas suburbs ahead of his junior year.
His numbers at The Colony were impressive — 46 tackles, 17 pass breakups, three interceptions over two seasons — but his high school coach, Rudy Rangel, believes Gonzalez’s stats didn’t show the whole picture because his opponents would simply refuse to target him.
“The stats weren’t there. You had to know that he eliminated a side of the field. There was one game, could have given him the offensive MVP, the defensive MVP and special teams,” Rangel told Oregon Live.
He was an immediate success at Colorado
Gonzalez was ranked the No. 31 safety and No. 46 overall recruit in Texas, and initially committed to Purdue before flipping to Colorado.
He made an immediate impact for the Buffaloes, tallying 25 tackles and five pass deflections as a freshman and starting every game over his two seasons there. However, the team posted an 8-10 record over those two years.
He transferred to Oregon, where his draft stock soared
Gonzalez transferred within the Pac-12 for his junior season, leaving a bottom-feeding Buffaloes squad for a contending team at Oregon. He immediately earned a starting role at cornerback.
“It felt like it was my time to leave Colorado, and I went in the portal and took a couple visits and [had] seen here and knew it was an opportunity — so I took it,” Gonzalez told Sports Illustrated’s Duck Digest.
Though he didn’t enter the 2022 season as a consensus first-round selection, his draft stock sky-rocketed with his monster junior year. He earned a first-team All-Pac-12 selection thanks to 45 tackles, 7 pass breakups, and three interceptions.
He is the brother-in-law of NFL quarterback David Blough
His sister Melissa married journeyman quarterback David Blough in 2019, giving the Gonzalez family ties to the NFL before Christian ever played a snap.
Blough was a four-year starter at Purdue. He has started six games in four seasons in the NFL, and is currently on the Vikings.
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