FOXBOROUGH - After sitting out the last two weeks with a shoulder injury, Christian Gonzalez says he will return to action on Sunday against the Jets, declaring, “I’m good now.”
Gonzalez got hurt early in the loss at Jacksonville, exited briefly, then returned to play for much of the rest of the game. We even spoke to him after the contest, and that normally doesn’t happen if the injury is serious.
"At that point, you got a lot of adrenaline,” he said of his appearance at the podium that day. “Adrenaline covers a lot of things in this sport. At that time, I felt good.”
But once that adrenaline wore off, Gonzalez knew he had a more significant problem, which explains his recent absence. The Pats survived in Buffalo, though it certainly helped that D.J. Moore was also nicked up coming in and left the game at halftime, then thrived in their rout over the basically wideout-less Raiders. But getting their top corner back in time for Garrett Wilson is good timing, because, to hear Gonzalez talk, Wilson is all that and a bag of chips.
“Everything,” he said when asked what the WR does well. “He can play all the spots on the offense. They move him around a lot, and he's extremely athletic. He makes highlight catches all the time, so a ton of respect for who he is, for the player he is, and just excited to see him again for sure.”
The two haven’t met since 2024, with Wilson missing both games against New England last season. Wilson went for 103 yards on five catches, but they all came with Marcus Jones in coverage. With the Jets' X receiver, Adonai Mitchell, just recovering from finger surgery, Gonzalez may get more opportunities against the Jets' top pass-catcher.
Meanwhile, New York may also have to deal with A.J. Brown. The Pats started the clock on his return from injured reserve on the first day he was eligible. Mike Vrabel didn’t want to fully commit, saying the team would “see how it goes,” but close friend and teammate Kevin Byard felt