Why Christian Gonzalez has the highest ceiling of any cornerback in the 2023 NFL Draft

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The sky is the limit for athletic Oregon cornerback Christian Gonzalez

The 2023 NFL Draft class is loaded at the cornerback position. As things currently stand, as many as six cornerbacks could be selected in the first round with three likely to go in the top 15 picks. Perhaps the one with the highest ceiling of the bunch is University of Oregon’s Christian Gonzalez. The University of Colorado transfer is one of the best athletes in the class, which in turn gives him one of the highest ceilings amongst any player.

Why can Christian Gonzalez become one of the best cornerbacks in the league?

Gonzalez’s best attribute as a defender is his fantastic athleticism. He has very good play speed which borders on elite, and he pairs with fluid hips and a light pedal.

Gonzalez does a great job of getting in position on vertical routes by quickly flipping his hips once he recognizes the route and then running at pace with the receiver. It is nearly impossible to stack Gonzalez on vertical routes because of the positioning he takes up as well as his play speed. Gonzalez transitions seamlessly in and out of his breaks and peddles. This paired with his play speed allows him to make consistent plays at the catch point.

Gonzalez was rarely tasked with playing in off-man coverage, but when he was he looked more than comfortable. He did a good job of staying in phase throughout the course of the route with the use of his athleticism.

When he was traditionally pedaling in Cover 3, it looked fluid as he stayed light on his toes and he was able to gain depth rather quickly.

As a cloud zone defender in Cover 2, Gonzalez gained perfect depth. He also had an understanding of when to hand off receivers to the deep half defenders to allow him to come up on the underneath routes.

Gonzalez has fantastic ball skills and hands, tracking the ball almost like a receiver and being able to make a play on the ball from any position.

Gonzalez will make for a great blitzer at the next level because of his quick acceleration.

What are the weaknesses of Christian Gonzalez?

Gonzalez is rather passive with his hand usage during the course of the route. He rarely uses them off of the line of scrimmage to try and jam the receiver and more often than not he opts to use his athleticism to stay in phase rather than his hands.

In press man, Gonzalez has his struggles. He gets too low into his starting position as his back is almost parallel to the ground, meaning his feet, hips, and shoulder are not aligned resulting in wasted movement. Additionally, his footwork can get sloppy as he almost leans back with his upper body causing him to get on his heels and play with loud feet.

Gonzalez has a tendency to overplay his leverage in press man which allows receivers to create easy separation.

Gonzalez plays with a weird technique in Cover 3 zone, to where he would almost get his back parallel to the line of scrimmage when he was gaining depth rather than having his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage. It looks extremely awkward and despite having the fluid hips to potentially make this work at the next level, it is something that offenses are going to look to exploit because of how he would have to transition out of it. Additionally, his feet did have a tendency to cross over in Cover 3.

He looks a bit lost at times in understanding where he needs to be in order to contain the edge against the run.

He needs to be more aggressive in attacking the outside shoulder of receivers on the boundaries to prevent runs from being bounced to the outside. He attacks blockers a little too passively at times.

Gonzalez is not a consistent form tackler, as he throws his shoulders into the thigh of the ball carrier rather than trying to wrap them up around their midsection.

Christian Gonzalez at the 2023 NFL Draft Combine

If you were to make a corner in a lab, they would look and run like Gonzalez. He ran a 4.38-yard dash which is an elite number and he paired it with a solid 10- and 20-yard split. All in all, Gonzalez posted a Relative Athletic Score of 9.94, the third-highest mark of any corner in this class.

Christian Gonzalez highlights

What are others saying about Christian Gonzalez?

“My No. 9 prospect back in August, Christian Gonzalez lived up to those lofty expectations and is one of the best non-quarterbacks in this draft class. He is long and athletic, can run and showed improved ball skills this past season. With his traits, Gonzalez should be an immediate starter as an NFL rookie.”

Dane Brugler The Athletic

As things currently stand, Gonzalez is best suited for a scheme that is heavy in off coverage. This is due to his questionable press technique as well as concerns over his lack of physicality. Gonzalez profiles best as a corner in a zone-heavy scheme due to his understanding of depth and pedal speed. However, if drafted to a man coverage scheme, he will be able to hold up because of his athleticism, fluid hips and ability to stay in phase vertically.

Gonzalez’s fantastic athleticism, ability to stay in phase, ball skills, and fluid hips give him the ceiling of a true three-down starting corner, although his struggles in press coverage, passiveness with his hands and poor tackling technique give him the floor of a role-playing starter.