Been thinking and Iv come up with a realistic scenario.
Bill knows that after all the upheaval and players leaving that 2019 will be very hard. I think he, and brady to some extent, have marked 2019 as a rebuild year. With the Draft picks we have and the fact that there are no major contracts up next year I think they have set their target on the 2020 season.
Gronk will sit out this year to recover his body and recharge as there is no point in him taking damage during a down year. And I think he comes back for the 2020 season all guns blazing.
What do you think guys
Though everyone else seems to tar and feathering you, I think your post is actually pretty darn reasonable. Let's put it this way: if Dee Ford had stayed onsides, your post would be one of many along these lines.
Last offseason, many of us felt this team was headed for a rebuild, much like 2009-10 because there are so many aging veterans and a lack of young, up and coming players. While it was nice to see some new faces emerge (Michel, Jackson), this is still a team built on veterans who are closer to the end than the beginning.
It was so shocking that they won a Super Bowl that people ware riding a wave still, which is hard not to because of their sheer awesomeness of this run. But prior to that (I'd say from the offseason through the beginning of the postseason) the idea of the Patriots needing to prepare to move on quickly from a lot of players was the prevailing through here. If you look at the Patriots from 2008-10, the following players were moved or retired: Vrabel, Bruschi, Seau, Seymour, Warren, Harrison, Brown, Moss, Light, and Izzo. That 07 team was absolute peak form, so many were surprised at how close they were to cooked in many ways.
Not so sure about the Gronk take, though. But I do think that just because this team won the SB, that doesn't mean the Patriots view themselves as wise to keep the status quo and may be a lot more aggressive than people thing in terms of shaking up the roster and going younger, even if it may be a year or two of growing pains.
And this doesn't mean waving the white surrender flag and taking a season or two. They'll still be competitive. It just may be about moves that value youth and draft picks (unknown) over proven commodities with a shorter window and lower ceiling right now.