New England Patriots legend Rodney Harrison believes the team is taking a major gamble in the ongoing contract negotiations with star cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
In fact, he believes that the failure to get a deal done could potentially come back to haunt the Patriots when future free agents hit the open market.
“If you don’t send a message now, or if you let Christian out of here, or make him play on the current deal, that sends a terrible message," Harrison said, via MassLive's Karen Guregian. "The last thing you want is a negative mark like that, to have a young player like Christian Gonzalez, and not pay him. If I’m a free agent with the Buffalo Bills or the Dallas Cowboys, I’m not going to the Patriots. [Expletive], they won’t pay Christian Gonzalez.
He showed the world how good he was.”
Harrison does believe that a deal will ultimately get done between the two sides.
Gonzalez is one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL, and at only 24 years old, it makes sense for the Patriots to want to commit to him for the long-term. It would send a strong statement to the locker room that the team is willing to reward players for producing, even if it reaches record-breaking heights.
The Seattle Seahawks recently broke the mold by making Devon Witherspoon the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history. Witherspoon was a player that the Seahawks drafted and developed into a cornerstone player on defense.
Now the pressure is on the Patriots to do the same with Gonzalez.
Follow Patriots Wire on Twitter and Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: Patriots legend warns team on failure to extend Christian Gonzalez
