The New England Patriots have traded the rights to retired tight end Rob Gronkowski to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, reuniting him with Tom Brady. This comes just a day after the tight end appeared on Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live” and insinuated that he was thinking about a return to the NFL one day.
Now, Gronkowski and Brady, two Hall of Fame players who have spent their entire careers with the Patriots, are playing together again in Tampa. So, to get another planet player from the Patriots, what did the Buccaneers have to ship to Foxboro?
A fourth-round pick. Oh, and the Patriots had to send a seventh back with Gronkowski.
Trade, pending physical: Patriots are trading TE Rob Gronkowski and a seventh-round pick to the Buccaneers for a fourth-round pick, source tells ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 21, 2020
According, to Drew Rosenhaus, Gronkowski’s agent, that physical has already been completed.
#Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski has taken his physical already, sources say. So the trade should happen: Gronk and a 7th for a 4th rounder.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 21, 2020
Now, looking at just the name and the picks that are involved in this trade will lead fans to believe this is a horrible trade. An all-world tight end and a seventh-round pick couldn’t be worth just a fourth, especially when the Buccaneers have a tight end who wants out in O.J. Howard. But, in this case, it actually makes some sense.
Regarding the Gronk trade terms, the Patriots really didn't have much leverage. If Gronk signed his papers to unretire, he would have been on the books for a $12M cap hit for a team that only had about $1M in space.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) April 21, 2020
New England had absolutely no leverage in this situation. Gronkowski was going to stay retired if he wasn’t getting traded to Tampa Bay. So, that means the Patriots had no teams bidding with one another to earn his services to up the price. Bill Belichick could either keep the rights to Gronkowski’s contract in New England, where he’d never play again, or trade them away for what he could get.
Unfortunately, that was going to be whatever the Buccaneers were willing to offer, and that was only a fourth.
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