We won a Super Bowl without Gronkowski. Obviously having him on the field makes our team better, but we can still be the best without him. Look at the Jaguars game for example. Gronk got knocked out and Brady started playing better than he had before. This might be just me, but Brady starts looking to distribute the ball more around the field without Gronk - throwing it to more open players. Again, I wholeheartedly believe that having Gronkowski on the field makes our offense better. But, I wouldn't mind trading Gronkowski to another team for a 1st round pick in the 8-15 range. Just imagine having that draft capital. A (I'll take the average) 12th overall pick, 31st overall pick, 43rd overall pick, and 64th overall pick. I would assume we'd trade the 12th down for additional value and still be able to pick up a top OT/DE/LB and then have much more flexibility with our later first round pick.
Again, Gronkowski on the Patriots gives us the best Patriots offense. But, if we were to gain an upper-middle first round pick for Gronk, I would feel that our team would be better, since we'd be able to address a few more needs that were heavily exposed in the Super Bowl. When looking at the entire scope of things, I think that Brady could still take a Gronk-less team to the AFC Championship Game at the very least. We have a very strong WR group that could be a top 5 unit when everyone is on the field. This dynasty hasn't always had Gronk; it always hasn't had a top-flight TE on some of its best teams. We've been a bit spoilt with the level of talent on our offense, but it might be time for a reset.