New England Patriots wanted Christian Gonzalez to become the highest-paid cornerback in the league. But that was before the Seattle Seahawks signed Devon Witherspoon to a four-year, $132 million contract extension a couple of weeks ago. After Witherspoon reset the CB market, the benchmark for Gonzalez has changed. And so far, the Patriots aren’t reportedly close to getting a deal done with their CB.

As that went down, Patriots beat reporter Doug Kyed shared the latest updates on the ongoing contract drama as regular-season approaches. Per Kyed, while the team certainly wants to extend Gonzalez, it’s taking longer even though it’s been almost two weeks since Witherspoon’s deal.

“I think he’s going to play, though, if he doesn’t get the deal done, because there’s not really a great other option,” Kyed told Ari Meirov. “But like you mentioned, it is a weird scenario. I think there’s confidence within the building that they’re going to get it done.

“But it’s taking so much longer than I personally expected it to take. I thought, all right, once Witherspoon’s deal is done, it’s pretty obvious what you need to give Christian Gonzalez. And the next step is just to give him that. And now it’s been weeks since Devon Witherspoon got his contract.”

It’s been quite some time since owner Robert Kraft declared that the Patriots offered Gonzalez a contract that would make him the highest-paid cornerback not only in franchise history but in the league as well. Since then, Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf has also reiterated Kraft’s comments about Gonzalez’s deal.

However, the 24-year-old has yet to sign a deal as he enters the fourth season of his NFL career. Meanwhile, the cornerback market has already been reset this offseason. Earlier, the Los Angeles Rams agreed to terms with Trent McDuffie immediately after trading for him and signed him to a four-year, $124 million contract extension, with a $31 million average annual value.

Then, the Cleveland Browns signed Denzel Ward on a two-year, $62.2 million contract extension, before the Seahawks offered Witherspoon a $33 million per year deal. For now, Christian Gonzalez is next in line to get their respective deal. However, the cornerback sounded off while addressing ongoing negotiations between the front office and his agents.

“I’m not going to get into that,” the CB told the reporters. “I’m out here now. So it is what it is.”

Across three seasons, Gonzalez has recorded 145 total tackles, 118 solo tackles, and three tackles for loss. As he enters the fourth season of his career, Gonzalez is expected to reset the cornerback market. But whether the Patriots are willing to give him that kind of deal remains the bigger question.

“You could see the frustration from Christian Gonzalez that he’s saying, I don’t want to handle this through the media,” Kyed added. “But then the Patriots have now said things twice. And he even acknowledged frustration last week that the deal hadn’t gotten done yet. So it’s a weird situation where we’re kind of up against it, time-wise now. We’ve got a week and a day until week one.”

The Patriots will open the season against the Seahawks in a week. Whether Christian Gonzalez gets a deal done before the kickoff remains to be seen.