Oregon's Christian Gonzalez lands in top-10 of latest mock draft from The Athletic
Christian Gonzalez’s NFL Draft stock has been on a meteoric rise since the sophomore cornerback arrived at Oregon last offseason.
With the 2023 Draft a little over three months away, Gonzalez has popped up near the top of yet another notable mock draft.
Dane Brugler of The Athletic published an updated mock draft on Tuesday that featured a plethora of changes from his initial Nov. 30 mock draft.
One of the more notable risers in Brugler’s latest mock is Gonzalez, who moved up three spots and is now being projected to go No. 6 overall to the Detroit Lions.
Here’s the rundown from Brugler.
After Anderson and Carter, there is a clear drop-off to the next tier of non-quarterback prospects in this class.
Christian Gonzalez flashed enough at Colorado to earn the No. 9 spot on my summer top-50 board, and he lived up to that hype in his one season at Oregon. With his speed/length athletic profile and the Lions’ need at cornerback, Gonzalez (the brother-in-law of former Lions’ backup quarterback David Blough) should be on Detroit’s shortlist for its first of two Round 1 picks.
Even the most optimistic Oregon fans could not have projected Gonzalez transforming into a fringe top-five draft prospect when he transferred into the program last offseason.
But in his lone season with the Ducks, Gonzalez established himself as one of the best cornerbacks in a conference that is stacked with talent at the position. He also flashed immense physical tools and was one of Oregon’s fastest players at 6-foot-2, 201 pounds.
In 12 games during the 2022 campaign, Gonzalez recorded 50 tackles, including 35 solo stops, and 1.0 tackles for loss. He hauled in four interceptions and broke up 11 passes.
Pro Football Focus issued Gonzalez a season grade of 81.0 overall — the second-best among Oregon defensive players and the 10th-best among Pac-12 defenders who play regularly.
“I love Christian being part of our team,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said after the Ducks’ win over Colorado in November. “You don’t know when you bring a guy in that’s been somewhere else what they’re going to be like and we’ve been really fortunate to be able to bring great players in that have been at other organizations.
“But what makes Christian special is he has phenomenal character. I know he wants to go perform well, at a high level.”
A former 4-star recruit, Gonzalez was the No. 310 overall prospect and the No. 27 player at his position in the class of 2020.
Gonzalez is the top cornerback listed in Brugler’s mock draft and was the lone Oregon player who popped up in the two-round mock.
Inside linebacker Noah Sewell, EDGE rusher DJ Johnson, left tackle T.J. Bass, and center Alex Forsyth are considered to be Oregon’s next best draft prospects.
