{"id":41669,"date":"2026-01-14T12:15:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=41669"},"modified":"2026-01-14T12:15:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:15:49","slug":"patriots-make-move-on-potential-christian-gonzalez-replacement-amid-concussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=41669","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Make Move on Potential Christian Gonzalez Replacement Amid Concussion"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2243464343-e1768392527706.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2243464343-e1768392527706.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2243464343-e1768392527706.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2243464343-e1768392527706.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Patriots Make Move on Potential Christian Gonzalez Replacement Amid Concussion\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>After surviving last Sunday night\u2019s wild-card opener, the New England Patriots will welcome the Texans to Foxborough this Sunday in the divisional round in a matchup between two teams whose defenses were at their best to start the playoffs. The Patriots took an impressive 16-3 defensive win over the Chargers, but the Houston defense absolutely splattered the Steelers in Monday night\u2019s 30-6 win on the road.<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots were as healthy as they had been in more than a month in the win over L.A., and that will be a key factor for the team going forward. There is one major injury concern, with star cornerback Christian Gonzalez in concussion protocol, but the Patriots appear to have escaped further issues. Still, replacing Gonzalez would be difficult, and the Patriots took a step toward that on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>For Houston, receiver Nico Collins is also dealing with a concussion after leaving Monday\u2019s win.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Patriots Bring Back Miles Battle<\/h2>\n<p>Against that backdrop, the Patriots announced a series of roster moves on Tuesday to bolster the team\u2019s depth. The moves were all made on the practice squad, but could be important depending on how the team decides to handle potential depth issues, especially if Gonzalez can\u2019t go.<\/p>\n<p>From the Patriots\u2019 official release: \u201d The New England Patriots announced that CB Miles Battle, RB D\u2019Ernest Johnson, T Lorenz Metz and WR Trent Sherfield Sr. have been signed to the practice squad and DL Fabien Lovett and WR Brandon Smith have been released from the practice squad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Battle is the most obviously important one, as he could potentially fill in for Gonzalez on the roster if he can\u2019t go. Battle was released last week, and signed back this week. He played five games for the Patriots this season, though he only appeared in 29 defensive snaps, playing 54 special teams snaps. He was with the Patriots, largely on the practice squad, last season and managed to survive the implementation of the new Mike Vrabel regime.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson is probably the other most important name on the list, as he is a veteran running back who played seven games this season and carried 13 times for 25 yards. He can also return kicks, which he did five times this season.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Christian Gonzalez, Nico Collins Concussion Loom Large<\/h2>\n<p>The Collins and Gonzalez concussions could have a big impact on the Patriots-Texans game. Both are Pro Bowlers, with Collins recording 1,117 yards receiving this season and quietly having one of the best years in the league at his position. Without him, the Texans\u2019 receiving crew gets very average very fast.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a similar situation with Gonzalez, where there is a drop-off\u00a0to second-year corner Charles Woods.<\/p>\n<p>Patriots coach Mike Vrabel praised Gonzalez this week, but offered no insight on when he might return.<\/p>\n<p>Said Vrabel: \u201cGonzo [Christian Gonzalez] continues to play at a high level. Those are the expectations that he has for himself and that we have for him, and yeah, I would say that he would be in the protocol. How long that lasts, I don\u2019t know, but when you don\u2019t return to the game, when they won\u2019t let you go back in the game, that would put him in the protocol.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, wherever that goes, that goes, but we appreciate what he\u2019s done and his willingness to line up different places. It\u2019s not quite as easy as \u2013 we\u2019ve been through this, but different coverages, locations, motions and things like that. So, he\u2019s handled that all really well. Hopefully, we\u2019ll get him back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patriots star Christian Gonzalez is dealing with a concussion, and the team bolstered its depth in case he can&#8217;t go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-england-patriots"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Patriots Make Move on Potential Christian Gonzalez Replacement Amid Concussion - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=41669\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patriots Make Move on Potential Christian Gonzalez Replacement Amid Concussion - 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