Agent provides update on Rob Gronkowski ahead of 2022 season
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Rob Gronkowski isn’t sure what the future holds for him, according to his agent, despite the fact that quarterback Tom Brady came out of retirement.
Gronkowski, 32, has retired once before, but when Brady moved from the Patriots to the Buccaneers in free agency, so too did the star tight end, who came out of retirement. Gronkowski has not officially retired a second time, but after a 55-reception, 802-yard, six-touchdown season, his agent Drew Rosenhaus said that he’s entirely unsure whether he wants to return to the NFL for a 12th season.
“Drew Rosenhaus said he spoke with Tampa Bay Bucs yesterday about his client TE Rob Gronkowski. He said he told them Gronk is ‘truly undecided’ about playing in 2022,” NFL Network reporter Cameron Wolfe tweeted on Thursday. “Gronk has hinted this offseason about likely returning to TB but wants to take his time. Bucs want him back.”
Gronkowski had some injury troubles in 2021, but that didn’t derail what was otherwise a successful season in 2021. In fact, his resurgent campaign saw him tally 800-plus yards for the first time in his two seasons with the Buccaneers, as well as his first time since the 2017 season. Gronkowski had not reached that total since two seasons before his first retirement, when he had 69 receptions for 1,084 receiving yards and eight touchdowns in 2018.
Gronkowski’s best seasons came in New England, during the 2011, 2014 and 2015 campaigns. In those three seasons, he had 90 receptions for 1,372 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns in 2011, 82 receptions for 1,124 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2014 and 72 receptions for 1,176 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in 2015. Though his play has declined slightly in recent years, he certainly looked more like his old self in 2021 — and now, he has his quarterback of the past decade-plus back out of retirement.
Gronkowski, who grew up in New York and moved to Pittsburgh as a kid, developed into a four-star recruit, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He committed to the University of Arizona as the No. 7 tight end in the 2007 recruiting class, and he was later named a first-team All-Pac-10 selection. Gronkowski was selected in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft, as the Patriots selected him with the 42nd-overall draft pick.
After nine seasons with the Patriots, Gronkowski took a year off from football in retirement, but he was later pulled out of retirement when Brady announced that he would be leaving Foxborough to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But after two seasons with the Buccaneers, he may be ready to hang them up — again.