Christian Gonzalez shuts down Seahawks again in Week 1

• Gonzalez delivers in the opener: Christian Gonzalez earned an 87.4 PFF grade against Seattle, the highest mark on the Patriots and his best single-game grade since his rookie season.

• Seattle found little success targeting Gonzalez: He allowed one catch for 4 yards on five targets while recording two pass breakups and surrendering a 39.6 passer rating.

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The New England Patriots made Christian Gonzalez the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history Tuesday. A day later, against an offense he had recently seen on a much bigger stage, he looked every bit worth it.

Seattle left with a 13-10 win, but Gonzalez delivered one of the best performances of his career and was comfortably New England’s best player.

A solid season opener

The former first-rounder earned an 87.4 PFF grade in the season opener, the highest mark among his teammates and the second-best in the game behind Seahawks safety Julian Love (90.0). His 86.3 coverage grade also ranked second among defenders with at least 10 coverage snaps, again trailing only Love (89.4).

Seattle targeted him five times. One pass was completed for 4 yards. Gonzalez broke up two others and even dropped an interception, allowing a 20.0% catch rate and holding quarterbacks to a 39.6 passer rating — the same mark a quarterback would produce by throwing every pass into the ground.

Across 27 coverage snaps, he allowed just 5.3 inches per coverage snap.

Most of that work came where it usually does. Gonzalez played 43 of his 50 snaps at outside cornerback. New England doesn’t move him much. The team puts him on the boundary and lets the offense decide how often it wants to try him. And Seattle didn’t get much for trying.

The 87.4 grade was also Gonzalez’s best single-game mark since his rookie year and topped his 2025 high of 86.1.

Same matchup, same result

The last time Gonzalez saw Seattle was Super Bowl 60. That night, he earned an 80.6 overall grade and an 86.8 coverage grade, with the latter finishing as his second-best coverage mark of the 2025 season.

The Seahawks targeted him five times then, too. They completed one pass for 16 yards. Gonzalez broke up another three passes, allowing another 20.0% catch rate and surrendering a 40.4 passer rating across 69 defensive snaps, with 59 snaps coming at outside cornerback.

Fourteen of his coverage snaps came against Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Gonzalez allowed one catch for 16 yards when matched up with him, while Smith-Njigba finished with four receptions for 27 yards in total. Last night, Smith-Njigba saw three targets against Gonzalez, and not a single pass was completed.

Put the two games together, and Seattle has gotten almost nothing from throwing in Christian Gonzalez’s direction. The combined line: Ten targets, two catches for 20 yards and just one first down allowed. Five of those throws were broken up, and he even dropped two picks. The result is a 39.6 passer rating when targeted.

Picking up where he left off

Gonzalez allowed a 43.4% catch rate on 106 targets last season, the lowest mark among qualifying cornerbacks. His 57.0 passer rating allowed ranked fourth at the position, as did his 13 pass breakups.

He missed one tackle on 87 attempts. His 1.1% missed-tackle rate was the lowest among qualifying cornerbacks, while his 90.4 tackling grade led the position.

The Oregon product topped a 75.0 defensive grade in four of his final five games, a late-season surge that carried straight through New England’s playoff run.