Will Another Big Tight End Deal Prompt Gronk To Want More?
May 28th, 2022
So another gargantuan tight end contract was announced today, and this one goes to a guy who caught only 36 balls for 475 yards and 4 touchdowns last season — paltry numbers compared to what Rob Gronkowski delivered for Tampa Bay.
Yes, Browns tight end David Njoku got a fat deal for $14 million+ per season, including $28 million guaranteed. It’s all over NFL Network.
Gronk, however, caught 55 balls for 802 yards and 6 touchdowns in 12 regular-season games last season. That almost makes Njoku look like a junior varsity player. Gronk also added nine catches and a touchdown in two playoff games — all for the bargain price of $8.5 million.
Njoku, per ProFootballTalk.com, is now the fifth tight end earning $14 million or more per season.
Wouldn’t it be reasonable for Gronk to see Njoku’s deal and want something in the neighborhood, like $11 million plus reachable incentives? Or perhaps he wants the full $14 million?
That would represent a hell of a raise. The Bucs comfortably find the money if they’re willing to rework Shaq Barrett or Donovan Smith’s contract.
Joe would find it hard to believe the Bucs have drawn a hard line in the sand on how much they’ll pay Gronk this season.
Joe has no doubt Gronk wants another year in Tampa and plans to return, but every day that passes potentially makes signing him a more complicated than GM Jason Licht saying, “Gronk, let’s do it again. We’ll give you a $1 million raise.”
May 28th, 2022 at 8:51 pm
pay the gronk
May 28th, 2022 at 8:52 pm
No matter, Brady will just grease him the extra million. They’re like peanut butter and Nutella. Or pork chops and applesauce. Gronk wouldn’t play for anyone else unless the disparity was several million clams.
What you’ll get from the dude is anyone’s guess
Gronk is a walking blue tent at this point. He looked horrible against the Rams. Expecting and counting on Gronk comes with great peril. He’s missed 14 games the last two years. The fact that licht has done nothing except draft a developmental TE, is a little scary
May 28th, 2022 at 8:54 pm
That Njoku deal is laughable. Look at that guys stats
Now baker is not that strong a qb but a tight end can be an average qbs best friend
But still , there GM should be embarrassed
Gronk will not expect that deal . He should be had for around same. Throw in extra mil or two incentives if his tight end numbers are top 7.
May 28th, 2022 at 8:57 pm
Put de ball on de field an play.
May 28th, 2022 at 9:09 pm
I’d hate to think the bucs are gold the line on Gronk, like they are Suh. It’s a bad comp. They have a different impact on the game.
May 28th, 2022 at 9:09 pm
Holding, don’t know how that autocorrected into gold
May 28th, 2022 at 9:10 pm
Just because the Browns did something stupid doesn’t mean we should repeat the mistake. Gronk hasn’t even decided he wants to play. If he decides to come back, they’ll figure it out.
May 28th, 2022 at 10:35 pm
At this point it dont matter imo if gronk is back. I like the TE we got. Huge for protection and running game. There young. Fresh legs. I dont doubt gronk. But i like where we at. I would like another WR. Im counting godwin out for 6-8 games this whole year.
We got 4 solid oline. My worry is dline amd depth there.
May 28th, 2022 at 11:07 pm
Age and injury history plays into contracts. No, Gronk is not getting any blow your mind deals at this point in his career. The man may play this season and that’s a career. No outrageous contract is coming for Gronk. You guys need something else to talk about it, I get it.
May 28th, 2022 at 11:12 pm
Ha GOB, blame autocorrect. I think somebody might have fat fingers.
May 28th, 2022 at 11:34 pm
Wait….what? Peanut butter and Nutella? Brady and Gronk are like a double nut sandwich? Lol, but I can’t think of another current NFL duo more recognizable than those 2. The closest I can think of is Montana and Rice
May 28th, 2022 at 11:47 pm
GOB – peanut butter and Nutella?! 8-0
That’s like the same thing man! Got to get some contrast in those analogies and metaphors!
May 28th, 2022 at 11:55 pm
If Gronk signed with the brown loaf mud dogs his final stats would swirl like logs in a bowl and he’d be crippled by the third game. Gronk is Gronk because of Brady.
He has to decide what kind of bowl he wants to finish his career in.
May 28th, 2022 at 11:57 pm
Test
May 29th, 2022 at 5:14 am
The Browns did something stupid … because they can (and because they’re the Browns). Right now they have the most salary CAP space in the NFL ($34.2 mil for their Top-51 number). They’re ‘all-in’ for 2022 (their future Dead CAP is astronomical … Deshaun Watson all by himself has a $230,000 dead CAP right now).
Doesn’t at all mean that the Bucs will repeat their stupidity. Gronk is good, but as much because of his blocking as anything else, and he is 33 now. Bucs drafted TWO TEs for a reason. Personally I’d rather have Suh back for $6.0-$6.5 mil to bolster our DLine than to have Gronk back for $10 mil to beef up our TE room.
May 29th, 2022 at 6:29 am
So the NFL is going to start overpaying mediocre players like MLB? Wonderful.
May 29th, 2022 at 6:30 am
GOB, that was a Freudian slip by autocorrect.
May 29th, 2022 at 7:30 am
Agree with Defense Rules. How stupid are the Browns. First they sign a QB with mind boggling guaranteed money who likely won’t play the first half of the season. (Not to mention questionable character.) Then they hang on to another QB with guaranteed money that will never play for them again. Now they set the TE market with a guy that’s a good but nowhere near a great player. If Gronk wants that kind of money let him go play with the Bengals. TB has plenty of weapons. Tired of the will he, won’t he Gronk saga. We need Suh far more than Gronk.
May 29th, 2022 at 8:07 am
Gronk is worth twice as much as Njoku. Idiot teams like the browns make life harder for the rest of the league.
May 29th, 2022 at 8:27 am
“Gronk-a-day”……
$14 mil…….but that’s for Cleveland……the Tampa discount to $9 mil is just about right.
May 29th, 2022 at 8:34 am
Lumbering Gronk would NOT make any 53 without Brady as his QB
That said money is not his highest priority, playing with Brady is all he suits up for these days and he’ll take whatever the Bucs have left to pay him.
May 29th, 2022 at 8:52 am
GOB say:
True fact, and important consideration. Gronk is a great player, but he’s at the age when constant injuries are an issue. He’s missed over 1/3 of the games as a Buc.
That has to be taken into consideration.
May 29th, 2022 at 8:58 am
Gronk dropping passes sticks out in my mind as a thing after he returned from getting his ribs busted While I don’t have the stats to back it up, at he seemed to worry more about the defender rather than making the catch. I could be wrong but im not certain he’s ready to put himself in that position again for the money he made last year.
Pork chops and applesauce…
May 29th, 2022 at 9:28 am
He’ll yeah, Suh before Gronk. All day, every day, but to say “Lumbering Gronk would NOT make any 53 without Brady as his QB” is pure homeroom. The guy may no longer deserve top dollar but I’d wager to guess more than a few teams would welcome him without TB casting his shadow across Gronk’s brow.
May 29th, 2022 at 9:29 am
Hell*….homerism*
May 29th, 2022 at 10:05 am
He’ll sign, for how much and how they get the money, I don’t really care. I have no doubt that he will sign within the next two months though
May 29th, 2022 at 12:12 pm
That’s a great deal for David najoku bad deal for the Browns in the long run the bucs are gonna have to look at Eric Ebron
May 29th, 2022 at 12:45 pm
A punctured lung is excruciating and extremely rare. I don’t recall Gronk having a history of missing games. Brady wants him. Brady gets him. They are a team within a team. The Bucs will win games because Gronk is playing TE rather than Brate or some rookie. He is a difference maker and great for team moral. When he’s ready, make the deal.
May 29th, 2022 at 2:15 pm
That’s why the Browns will continue suck.
May 29th, 2022 at 3:30 pm
Gronk is still top 5 as a tight end receiver. He is #1 tight end as a blocker. Play him sparingly until the last 4 games before playoffs. Give him 10 million and a lot of incentives, but we need him for the playoffs.
May 29th, 2022 at 3:38 pm
@1sparky: I don’t know where you get your info, but Gronkowski has missed like 30+/- games in his NFL career due to injury, and an entire season in college.
May 29th, 2022 at 8:09 pm
Bring him in week 11 during the bye week. We will have him for the stretch run at Cleveland, vs New Orleans, at SF, vs Cincinnati, at Arizona, vs Carolina, at Atlanta. Then he will hit mid-season form for the playoffs, instead of being run down from playing an entire season. Maximize Gronk!
May 30th, 2022 at 2:21 am
Gronk makes that when you break it down what they earn per a game played