On Tuesday afternoon, Rob Gronkowski’s agent Drew Rosenhaus told Adam Schefter that New England finally restructured the tight end’s contract. This incentive-laden contract will give Gronkowski the opportunity to become the highest paid tight end in the NFL. This reworked deal is based solely on the 28-year old’s health and production, while keeping both sides happy, as the two sides have reportedly been trying to work out a new deal for the last six months.
The contract is broken down in three separate tiers, like so:
First tier: gives Gronkowski $10.75 million if he either makes All Pro (which he’s made four times in his career), plays 90 percent of the time, catches 80 passes or records 1,200 receiving yards
Second tier: gives Gronkowski $8.75 million if he either plays 80 percent of the time, catches 70 passes, records 1,000 receiving yards or scores 12 touchdowns
Third tier: gives Gronkowski $6.75 million if he either plays 70 percent of the time, catches 60 passes, records 800 receiving yards or scores 10 touchdowns
Gronk has a legitimate shot at making bank if he simply stays healthy, which has been a major struggle for him throughout his career. He’s undergone three back surgeries, tore his ACL and broken his forearm and has needed multiple surgeries on it over the years. While we know what kind of insane production he is capable of when healthy, it is sometimes forgotten about when he’s nursing another injury. The Patriots have created gameplans and played without him multiple times and have proven that they can win without him (I.E. Super Bowl 51), but New England is simply much more dangerous and destructive with him. Teams doubling up on Gronk and leaving guys like Julian Edelman or Chris Hogan wide open is crucial to the Patriots’ offensive success.
This was already the perfect time for Gronkowski to shine, as the Patriots are quite blatantly loading up this season, on a mission to win their sixth Super Bowl, but even moreso now that he has the chance to, once more, remind the league just how much of a beast he is. If Gronk can contribute to another Super Bowl-winning Patriots team AND break the bank in the same year, it’s a win-win for both sides. And that’s exactly what this reworked contract is aiming for: to make both sides happy. Add a healthy Gronk to this already loaded Patriots offense, and you’re looking at this team being more talented than the 2007 Patriots team.
Since entering the NFL back in 2010, Gronkowski has played a total 88 of 112 possible regular season games. The last time Gronk played a full, 16 game season was in 2011 when he caught 90 passes for 1,327 yards. In 2014, he played in 15 games while catching 82 passes for 1,182 yards. In 2015, Gronk was eight catches short of 80 receptions and 24 yards short of 1,200 yards in 15 games played. With that being said, all Gronk really has to do to cash in is stay healthy. He’s such a brute force and is so utterly dominant that he sometimes goes almost too hard out there. If he can stay relatively healthy while putting up typical Gronk-like numbers, he can finally earn the money he’s worth with the Patriots and be labeled the greatest tight end of all time. Gronk has scored 69 very nice touchdowns in his NFL career, averaging 0.78 touchdowns per game, while Tony Gonzalez averaged 0.48 touchdowns per game in his 17-year career.
This deal is simply perfect for both the team and the player. If Gronk stays healthy, he gets paid and is almost assured to be a Patriot for years to come and continue this team’s greatness. If he can’t perform and can’t stay healthy, then it’s quite possible that New England chooses to move on from him via trade. The Patriots have made sure that everyone knows that they want to win, win, and win some more, and they want Gronk to be a part of that plan. This is the perfect deal to do just that. They want him to help Tom Brady ride off into the sunset, whenever that may be, and they want a healthy Gronk to help make that happen. This is the time for Gronkowski to shine, and we all know that he’s more than capable of doing just that. It all comes down to health. The Patriots want to know immediately whether or not Gronk is going to be a part of things for the long run, and these such incentives will give them that.
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