How Focused is Gronk?

[NE_PATS_FAN_54]

My hope is Belichick realizes he reacted poorly to the situation and can somehow regain the trust of not only Brady and Gronk but the entire team. I’ve come down hard on Belichick as the cause of this turbulence, but that’s how I see it. Even though he’s the greatest coach any of us will ever have coach our favorite team, Belichick is still just a flawed human like the rest of us. Hopefully, Coach Belichick will admit his flaws to the appropriate people and heal his relationship with his owner, his dynasty co-author QB, his GOAT TE, and the rest of the 2018 Patriots.

Disagree. Brady and Gronk need to get their stuff together and start acting like the leaders of this team. Kraft showed Brady loyalty by having Jimmy G traded. Brady responds by giving him an offseason of retirement talk and skipping workouts?? Months after they trade the guy they spent 4 years grooming to be the next franchise QB? Inexcusable.

And the Gronk act is getting old. They barely skipped a beat when he was out in 2016. Obviously the offense is different now, but he needs to stop acting like he's on Brady's level of being irreplaceable - he's not. If he can't get in line, trade him and beef up the draft capital.

 

[fnordcircle]

Didn't realize opening this thread a one-way ticket to HOT TAKE CITY

 

[Greg]

I just can’t wait for this offseason to be over. At this point, if we moved Gronk at the draft, I am ok with it.

 

[supafly]

I just can’t wait for this offseason to be over. At this point, if we moved Gronk at the draft, I am ok with it.

We’d be losing the best blocking TE in the NFL during a year where they allowed one of only two franchise LTs in the Tom Brady era to walk away. That’s big, and that’s not even accounting for Gronk’s obvious importance to the receiving game after trading away Brandin Cooks.

If Belichick is smart (and he obviously is), I think he finds a way to patch up the issues and makes an exception for once in a generation type of talent. He’s smart enough to know that any precedent set wouldn’t matter because the next guy isn’t going to be nearly as important. Hopefully, he’s taking things on a case-by-case basis here, and isn’t just rolling with the “no one defies me” type of attitude. There’s no doubting that trading Gronk would hurt the team, piss Brady off even further, and lessen any chances that we have of winning one more SB.

 

[Kontradiction]

So what other player in the Belichick era has thought they were above the team concept and it was okay. Since when is changing an ingredient in a successful formula a good idea?

This is what I mean by the Super Bowl making people lose their minds. When you’re posting like Rhody, you should know something is wrong...

1. It’s the offseason.

2. Gronk wants a new contract. See Mankins, Logan for examples on this behavior (just to name one).

What’s your solution, Icy? Wanna trade both of them and see if we can secure a top 5 pick next year as well to reload?

 

[patman52]

There's this tendency in the reflexive homer ranks to assume that success magically flows from the Flying Elvis rather than, you know, the talent of the players who wear it. It's the sort of bizarre belief that can only possibly stem from two straight decades of uninterrupted success.

There is that tendency, but it also has its genesis in the core belief that everyone has to be as one behind the head coach in order to produce two decades of success as much as it is of collecting talented players.

Should Brady read the riot act to Bill post super bowl if he thought BB personal feelings towards Butler overruled his head, damm straight and I hope he did so, if he feels that is the case. That was the time and place to do so. One hundred times over the years Tom has said he is the qb and not the coach. When he does not say it this time, this type of **** storm is the result.

 

[Kontradiction]

There is that tendency, but it also has its genesis in the core belief that everyone has to be as one behind the head coach in order to produce two decades of success as much as it is of collecting talented players.

Should Brady read the riot act to Bill post super bowl if he thought BB personal feelings towards Butler overruled his head, damm straight and I hope he did so, if he feels that is the case. That was the time and place to do so. One hundred times over the years Tom has said he is the qb and not the coach. When he does not say it this time, this type of **** storm is the result.

Yeah, and it’s still one that the coach created. As others have said, it’s easy to eat a **** sandwich day in and day out when you think the coach has winning first and foremost. When your defense tanks the Super Bowl and he leaves a guy that played 98% of the snaps on the sideline in favor of guys like Richards and Bademosi, you’re probably not going to be as willing to eat that **** sandwich anymore.

 

[supafly]

This is what I mean by the Super Bowl making people lose their minds. When you’re posting like Rhody, you should know something is wrong...

1. It’s the offseason.

2. Gronk wants a new contract. See Mankins, Logan for examples on this behavior (just to name one).

What’s your solution, Icy? Wanna trade both of them and see if we can secure a top 5 pick next year as well to reload?

I think Seymour pushed the envelope pretty far as well, although I don’t fully remember the specifics. I’m pretty sure there may have been a holdout on some level, maybe back in 2005?

 

[supafly]

Yeah, and it’s still one that the coach created. As others have said, it’s easy to eat a **** sandwich day in and day out when you think the coach has winning first and foremost. When your defense tanks the Super Bowl and he leaves a guy that played 98% of the snaps on the sideline in favor of guys like Richards and Bademosi, you’re probably not going to be as willing to eat that **** sandwich anymore.

As well as seeing other less talented and less important players getting paid during the offseason, too. I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but I recently read an article that claimed that Brady is now the lowest paid starting QB in the league who isn’t named AJ McCarron. Those still under rookie pacts were excluded, of course.

As for Gronk, there will be 18 other skill position players who are now making more than him in 2018. I think it’s easier to eat the aforementioned sh!t sandwich when you’re at least feeling appreciated if you’re not getting paid well. I don’t think either of those guys are feeling too appreciated at the moment, and I think that brings their current contracts into focus that much more.

 

[RobertWeathers]

What kind of treatment?

A rub down?

Watch the video

 

[RobertWeathers]

Gronk would have said exactly this same thing in the same context last season and nobody would have batted an eyelid. Now everybody is champing at the bit to trade a Hall of Fame tight end in his prime. That Super Bowl loss drove this board insane... well, even more than usual.

Last year he attended OTAs and had his contract adjusted. Nor did he fan the flams on retirement talk.

He's still playing this year but his actions are curious

 

[Triumph]

Tom Brady is the formula.

Its BB, but thank you because Brady on his right side.

Not Gronk. Therefore, you agree that the Pats will keep winning after Robby is shipped off.

 

[Triumph]

Nah. We want the Brady who went to the 8 Super Bowls, not the passive aggressive version we seem to have now.

You can't change your standards to placate someone you're scared of losing. Fearing I'll sound like a fortune cookie - once you do that you've already lost.

Brady went to the Super Bowl 3 months ago.

What do you think has changed since then?

 

[Triumph]

This is what I mean by the Super Bowl making people lose their minds. When you’re posting like Rhody, you should know something is wrong...

1. It’s the offseason.

2. Gronk wants a new contract. See Mankins, Logan for examples on this behavior (just to name one).

What’s your solution, Icy? Wanna trade both of them and see if we can secure a top 5 pick next year as well to reload?

The Mankins situation was totally different. Mankins contract had expired and he signed the franchise tag for a 1 year deal.

Gronk just signed a new contract and now he doesnt like it.

 

[Kontradiction]

The Mankins situation was totally different. Mankins contract had expired and he signed the franchise tag for a 1 year deal.

Gronk just signed a new contract and now he doesnt like it.

As well he shouldn’t. He should easily be the highest paid TE in the league. And their behavior over wanting a new deal isn’t different at all, which was the point.

 

[primetime]

As well he shouldn’t. He should easily be the highest paid TE in the league. And their behavior over wanting a new deal isn’t different at all, which was the point.

He should play for free or ship his ass out of town. There's a hungry 7th rounder from Harvard waiting in the wings who Belichick, miracle worker, will turn into a Hall of Famer no problem. Who needs Gronk, he's probably nothing special without Brady and Bill anyways!!!1

 

[Triumph]

As well he shouldn’t. He should easily be the highest paid TE in the league. And their behavior over wanting a new deal isn’t different at all, which was the point.

Mankins had no contract.

Gronk has a contract. The time to hold out is during contract negotiations like Mankins did. Not today after you just signed a new deal that pays you through 2019.

Gronk is on the downside and should be traded.

 

[Triumph]

He should play for free or ship his ass out of town. There's a hungry 7th rounder from Harvard waiting in the wings who Belichick, miracle worker, will turn into a Hall of Famer no problem. Who needs Gronk, he's probably nothing special without Brady and Bill anyways!!!1

Exactly

Gronk is a big goofy TE on another team.

Trade him to the Browns for David Njoku and a Browns 2nd round pick. Then watch your HOF TE bring all the winning to Cleveland. Jamie Collins is lighting it up over there. Perhaps Collins and Gronk can go dirt biking together.

 

[primetime]

Mankins had no contract.

Gronk has a contract. The time to hold out is during contract negotiations like Mankins did. Not today after you just signed a new deal that pays you through 2019.

Gronk is on the downside and should be traded.

Do you have a specific time where it's appropriate for teams to release players too, or is it only the players who need to shut up and honor the contract they signed?

 

[Triumph]

The trend is not positive with his injury history.

Gronk’s Future

To the casual observer he had another top season in 2017 that will be remembered when he’s inducted into the Hall of Fame, but I think the correct business decision is to trade him during the draft. To those who were really watching last year he looks like a shell of his former self - a shell that can still dominate the league - but the trend isn’t positive.