Lets Get Physical with the Tampa Bay Bucs
Long time NFL TE Rob Gronkowski is set to reunite with QB Tom Brady on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2020 season. ESPN’s Adam Shefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoppart both stated that the terms of the proposed trade will see Tampa Bay get Rob Gronkowski and a seventh round pick from the New England Patriots in exchange for a fourth round pick from the Buccaneers in the 2020 NFL draft. The 30 year old tight end played his entire professional football career with the Patriots until his retirement in 2019, announced publicly on Instagram. Five months later Gronkowski stated that the pain and injuries he sustained while playing had taken a toll on his physical and mental health. Despite suffering from football injuries, Gronk soon after became an occasional wrestler for WWE where he is currently WWE 24/7 Champion so he hasn't actually slowed down.
In the NFL, Rob Gronkowski is a three time Super Bowl champion, a five time Pro Bowler, four time first team All Pro Selection, is on the NFL's 2010’s all decade team and 100th Anniversary All Time Team. Gronk set several records including being the only tight end to lead the league in receiving touchdowns in 2011 with seventeen. He also is the only tight end in NFL history to have reached 1000 yards or more in a season and has the most career postseason receiving touchdowns at the position with twelve. He has the most combined receptions which is twenty three, and two hundred ninety seven receiving yards, both Super Bowl records. He is ranked first in the NFL record book in average yards per target and his average touchdowns per game was 0.69 among all the tight ends in history.
Wide Receiver Julian Edleman is most likely going to stay with the New England Patriots where he spent eleven seasons, having a notable career with QB Tom Brady, as they have a need for stability at that position. He also may be past his prime and remains under a team friendly contract till 2021. If Edelman is sent away before June 1st, he will save them 4.33 million dollars. If it’s after June 1st, he will save them 7 million. The Patriots could decide to pay his 9.66 million cap debt in 2020 and would only owe him 6.6 million for the final year of his deal. Gronk has stated before that the only way he would come out of retirement would be to be reunited with Brady with no mention of Julian Edleman. The Pats offense struggled last season without Gronk so when their former Quarterback signed a two year fully guaranteed 50 million deal with the Bucs organization this offseason, that's when the rumors began about the reunion of Brady and Gronk, yet Edleman would not be on the Bucs or Gronks radar. The Patriots still owned Gronk’s rights in which he still had one year left costing them $10 million dollars. Gronk could have played that last season but decided not to. Bill Belichick didn't mind releasing him to the Tampa Bay organization because he believes he is not projected to produce positive results for the Patriots. It's about to get physical in the Sun in Tampa Bay with Gronk and Brady back together, and with the offensive weapons already in place on the Bucs offense, the NFC south should be quite interesting.
