Report: The Patriots Tried to Trade Gronk Before the Draft
PFT – It’s indeed “hogwash” that the Patriots had a trade for tight end Rob Gronkowski on the table, that they were ready to proceed, that quarterback Tom Brady threatened to retire, and that owner Robert Kraft vetoed the deal. That doesn’t mean the Patriots didn’t explore the possibility of doing a deal.
Per a league source, the Patriots were calling other teams about a possible Gronkowski trade as recently as three days before the draft. Coincidentally (or not), Gronkowski ended nearly three months of uncertainty regarding his future by declaring publicly that he would play in 2018 only two days before the draft.
It’s not known what the Patriots wanted, or whether a deal was actually close. If it was, it never got to the point where Brady made a power play and Kraft made a boss move, literally.
For all the exaggerations, obfuscations, half truths and flat out Fake News falsehoods surrounding the Patriots in 2018, I can assure you that this one is 100 percent truth. That not only did they explore offers, a source I checked with confirms “they shopped the shit out of Gronkowski.”
As shocking as it would be if they traded him now, with him committed to this season at the very least, a pre-draft trade would’ve been a slightly above average surprise. At most. Remember at that time, he was in the middle of his non-committal, equivocating, Hamlet Act 6 Scene 9 thing. Where all we or the team had to go on was his evasive answer postgame answer in Minnesota and rumors about him teaming up with Mojo Rawley. I was reduced to combing through Lyrics A-to-Z to figure out why he kept hashtagging “bands make her dance” to figure out if it was his way of hinting he wants a pay raise or just likes Juicy J singing about making it rain in tittay bars. It’s a period in my life I’m not proud of. So it’s not only understandable Belichick and Nick Caserio would’ve been working the phones back in April, they’d be derelict in their duty not to.
And I’m going to connect the dots here and say there’s a direct connection between the team shopping him and Gronk’s decision to announce he’s back. Because if history has taught us anything, the Gronkowskis were not going to enjoy whichever landing spot the Patriots found for him. You can forget the report they were talking to John Lynch in San Fran or John Robinson in Tennessee. Whenever a Patriots player leaves on good terms like Jimmy Garoppolo or Matt Cassel, they get sent to someone off the Belichick GM Tree. But if a guy is being obstinate about his contract, he gets exiled. Like that Twilight Zone where the clairvoyant little kid will send you out into the cornfield if you don’t make him happy, Belichick will punish you to some barren wasteland like Richard Seymour going to Oakland or Logan Mankins being shipped to Tampa. Think about our last offer while you suck on a 2-14 record, ingrate. For sure, Gronk would’ve been sent somewhere with no chance he’d be catching passes from a Pro Bowler late into January, just to make an example of him. And it was enough to scare him straight and back into the fold.
That said, we are now just under three weeks since the day Gronk was eligible for a restructure on his contract, with still no deal in sight. So the timing of this story seems to be a pretty clear warning of what could happen if an agreement isn’t reached. And soon.