Will Rob Gronkowski come out of retirement to rejoin the Patriots? There’s a “40% chance” of that happening, a source close to the tight end tells Mike Florio of PFT.
Much has been made about Gronkowski’s apparent weight loss, but the tight end claims that he’s lost only 18 pounds since the Super Bowl. Assuming that only a fraction of that weight is muscle mass, it might not be hard for Gronk to get back into football shape, should he decide to retake the gridiron.
Florio speculates that a direct appeal from Tom Brady to Gronkowski could convince the veteran to give it one more go. Furthermore, while coach Bill Belichick isn’t crazy about players cherry picking their activity participation, he believes that Belichick has taken a softened stance and would not stand in the way of Gronkowski rejoining the team later this year.
While we wait to see what happens with everyone’s favorite party animal, here’s more from the AFC East:
- Jets wide receiver Robby Anderson can cash in with a huge 2019 season, Brian Costello of the New York Post writes. Anderson had 50 catches for 752 yards and six touchdowns in 14 games last year. More importantly, he averaged 15 yards per catch and showed that he is one of the best deep threats in the league. New coach Adam Gase has already said that he wants to better utilize Anderson’s blazing speed, so he could set himself up for a sizable payday in 2020.
- This week, the Jets added to their analytics department with the hire of Matt Sheldon as their new director of football research and strategy (Twitter link via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com). Sheldon held the same title under Adam Gase with the Dolphins in ’17 and ’18. It’s a sign that the Jets are putting greater emphasis on advanced stats and also another sign of Gase’s serious influence in the organization.
There goes Florio again, saying 40% chance he comes back so no matter what happens he can claim he was right. What a tool.
I don’t think he has any inside info and it’s likely he’s pulling this out of his you know what, but 40% seems like a perfectly fair handicap. It’s not more likely than not, but certainly plausible.
It’s amusing that all of Florio’s sources want to remain anonymous.
I think n hope Gronk returns.
He is super skinny right now. You can tell he hasn’t been lifting or eating to keep all that weight on. I think he is done.
Why?
I hope Gronk takes every role the Rock was going to get. Gronk is a lot more funny and is one of the most like-able athletes alive
But he’s a knuckle dragging goofball that probably wouldn’t be able to learn his lines. He does best on the fly anyway and not rehearsed.
Florio’s unnamed source was really just a two minute thought session with himself in which he decided 40 was a reasonable gamble. Glad that type of “reporting” is getting called out by others in the industry now, though.