Christian Gonzalez Scouting Report

An in-depth breakdown on why Christian Gonzalez would make an excellent choice for the Lions pick at sixth overall.

Background

Originally a low four-star safety recruit, Gonzalez committed to the Colorado Buffaloes out of high school, playing at The Colony High School on the north edge of Dallas. His true freshman season was the shortened 2020 season, but that did not stop Gonzalez from making an immediate impact, starting all six games.

He was back again as a full-time starter for the Buffs in 2021, starting twelve games that year. He tallied zero interceptions, however, through two seasons, but did earn honorable mention Pac-12 All-Conference along the way. With the Buffs just 8-10 however, and the emergence of the Transfer Portal, Gonzalez hit the portal and ended up committing to the Oregon Ducks, led by former Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning.

He put his interception drought to bed very quickly, pulling in an interception against Eastern Washington in week two. Gonzalez was an immediate starter for the Ducks, and ended up starting all twelve games. He was named First-Team All-Conference by the coaches poll this past season, and ended the year with four interceptions, with two of them coming against his former team, Colorado.

Gonzalez’s Strengths

Gonzalez has prototypical size and excellent reactive athleticism. He's 6'2, 200 lbs., and a very high end athlete who mirrors opposing receivers with ease thanks to his top tier athleticism. Very fluid player. Originally reported out of Eugene that he would run in the 4.3s proved accurate, as he tallied a 4.39 40-yard dash time at the Combine.

Footwork is incredibly smooth. Really trusts his footwork, staying nice and balanced in his backpedal. Some taller corners struggle to sink hips into it, but Gonzalez is a very good athlete. Check out just the quickness from his feet in the clip above.

Gonzalez is highly proficient in man press technique. Oregon almost always has Gonzalez in press to start, and then works a wide variety of coverages in on the backend, with some C1 and C3 looks, giving him a lot schematic versatility as well. No matter what Lions want to do, he'll be able to do it given that versatility and ability in man coverage. For Detroit, this is particularly important given the frequency they run man press coverage.

Also very good bail technique. This is when cornerbacks start with their body turned sideways to see the box, and then backpedals out to a more evened up alignment with their receiver. This allows Gonzalez to match speed on the outside with smooth technique to flip his hips and run here.

His run defense is also pretty good. He's not as aggressive as Witherspoon, but he makes good reads, can slip through and between tackles, and is a willing and efficient tackler. This rep above is a nice example. He keeps outside contain forcing the RB back inside, and then still manages to make a cut in-between the linemen to dive in and bring down the ball-carrier. Quality effort and technique, with his quickness and athleticism on display. Could stand to be more decisive as a whole, but does everything needed of him and isn't shy about contact.

Where Gonzalez Could Stand to Improve

Probably his biggest weakness is inconsistent ball skills. As mentioned, he had no interceptions at Colorado, and even with four at Oregon, he wasn't consistently able to deflect passes and come away with big interceptions. This clip above is actually a good example, as it looks like a terrific play and interception by Gonzalez, but he actually loses the ball here, resulting in a big play for Washington.

The couple of times Gonzalez actually struggled was against highly physical wide receivers. He tests very well in the weight room, but doesn't show the same play strength you'd want to see with the numbers he's putting up there. Additionally, in press coverage, he's not overly forceful, but does still get his hands locked to the right spots. Precise, not powerful.

Think he can be a bit slow to trigger back into comeback routes. He runs very well with the receiver through their plant, but needs to be a bit sharper in redirecting back into their frame to deflect the ball at the end of that specific route.

Struggled with being a bit too handsy and getting some PI calls whilst at Colorado. Much cleaner at Oregon however.

Quotes on Gonzalez

The Athletic's Dane Brugler with some family background on Gonzalez:

Speed and athleticism can be found in his roots. His father, Hector, played college basketball at UTEP and professionally in Colombia; his older sisters, Melissa and Samantha, were two-time All-Americans in track and are members of the Colombia national track and field team. (Melissa is married to David Blough, a former Purdue and Detroit Lions quarterback who’s currently on the Vikings’ practice squad). — Dane Brugler

The Athletic's Bruce Feldman listed Gonzalez amongst his "freaks list" of the craziest athletes in CFB:

The younger brother of two former All-American sprinters, 6-2, 200-pound Gonzalez was a standout for Colorado in 2021, making 53 tackles, 5.5 TFLs and five pass breakups. Gonzalez wowed the Ducks’ coaches this offseason with this athleticism, hitting 23.3 mph on the GPS, vertical-jumping 42 inches and power-cleaning 325 pounds.

Here's also a video interview, where Gonzalez is speaking with the aforementioned Feldman. The Draft Network also has a written out interview with Gonzalez, which includes some clips of him doing footwork drills.

How He Fits in Detroit?

Much of this is dependent on what happens with the Lions in the upcoming free agency period. The Lions will certainly be somewhat selective there, as head coach Dan Campbell mentioned. However, Detroit has a significant need for talented cornerbacks, as Detroit ranked just 30th in the league in passing yards surrendered. With Jeffrey Okudah, a former top-five selection, being benched towards the end of the season, the Lions really do not have a premier cornerback on the roster and that would be the primary role that the Lions would be asking Gonzalez to step into.

Given his elite blend of size, speed, and overall athleticism (evidenced by a freakish 9.96 Relative Athletic Score), Gonzalez has a clear path to become the Lions top cornerback quite quickly, and one of the NFL’s top cover guys in short order as well.

The big question then comes down to how the Lions handle free agency. At cornerback, teams tend to do either one of three things when determining where the cornerbacks align. Some teams will simply leave them on a designated side of the field, right cornerback and left cornerback. Other times they will designate one as the boundary side cornerback and the field side cornerback. The third is match-up specific, asking a top cornerback to shadow the opposing offense’s top receiver the whole game. Given how open the Lions cornerback room is, they have the ability to pretty much pursue any angle they wish in rebuilding it.

A signing of Jamel Dean, for example, gives the Lions a similar type player, an outside man press cornerback, but there still would be significant opportunity for Gonzalez to lock down that other spot, with Jerry Jacobs or another free agent signee playing in the slot. Thus, there really is a truly open opportunity as the Lions aim to remake their defensive backfield. Christian Gonzalez offers them a very high end talent who is both technically proficient on film, and an elite athlete as well. That type of combination does not come around often, and the Lions would be wise to pounce on it.

At this point in the pre-draft process, Christian Gonzalez has sufficiently planted himself as choice #1 for the Lions with the sixth-overall selection, unless of course someone like Will Anderson ends up dropping to the Lions.