Will Rob Gronkowski Retire? Buccaneers TE would fold if forced to make immediate decision, not tied to Tom Brady

Rob Gronkowski’s murky future with the Buccaneers could be a little clearer days after the Bucs’ division-round loss to the Rams.

The Tampa Bay tight end, widely viewed as the best to ever play in the NFL, he told TMZ Sports He would retire on Wednesday if the NFL made him pick at this point.

“If they say, ‘Rob, you have to decide right now, this second if you’re going to play next year,’ I’d say not right now,” Gronk. saying. “It would be like, ‘No, I’m not playing’.”

Speaking about Babcock and Mojo, Gronk said he’s too beat up right now as he wraps up his 11th NFL season.

“If I had an answer right now,” Gronk said of the possibility of playing another year, “it would be no.”

Gronkowsky discussed his future in the Bucs’ late-season media availability and would not commit to playing in 2022. He said he needed three to five weeks to process the end of the season and see what his next step might be. . .

“You can’t make a decision with that mindset,” Gronkowski said. by the athletic.

Now, just four days after his postgame comments, the tight end still hasn’t finished his self-imposed recovery period, which he acknowledged to TMZ Sports.

“I just want to fully heal, see where my thoughts are from there,” Gronk saying. “Just let things settle down, you just have to heal a little bit. Fix all the bumps and bruises.”

So, he will make that decision.

MORE: What went wrong for Bucs vs. rams?

Gronkowski, 32, has already retired once. He resigned after the 2018 NFL season, his ninth with the Patriots, and spent 2019 out of football. However, Tom Brady lured him back to the NFL and convinced him to play for the Bucs, where he spent each of the last two seasons.

Now both Gronk and Brady are considering their future. Brady, 44, would not announce whether he would return for the 2022 season, and appears legitimately considering retiring despite posting the second-most passing yards in NFL history (5,316) and being considered one of two candidates. main to the MVP.

Gronk and Brady are close. Are your decisions connected? Not necessarily, according to Gronkowski, who said he would consider playing even if Brady wasn’t the Buccaneers’ quarterback.

“There could be a scenario like that,” Gronkowski said. “I would never throw anything off the board because you never know how something is going to play out.”

IYER: What’s next for Tom Brady, Buccaneers?

Of course, it’s worth noting that Gronkowski has only expressed interest in playing Brady at quarterback during his career. He once threatened to retire if Brady and the Patriots traded him, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, while his agent Drew Rosenhaus has said before that Gronkowski only came back from retirement to play with Brady.

That makes it sound like Gronkowski would retire if Brady resigns, but perhaps his tone has changed after playing with his Buccaneers teammates. He spoke enthusiastically of his teammates and the Tampa Bay locker room during his postseason availability.

“That’s what makes soccer so great, is having that special bond with your teammates,” Gronkowski said. “It’s very hard to get that anywhere else in life. To have a team where everyone works together, to have so many people on a team, to build those relationships and bonds that we all have in this locker room, I mean, it’s something special for me. to have that. This locker room was definitely up there. Everyone was very close.”

So maybe Gronkowski will even be without Brady if he craves that camaraderie.

MORE: Antonio Brown trolls Bucs after playoff loss vs. Rams

All that said, Gronk’s future is murky right now. The Bucs should have a better idea of ​​whether he’ll be available before he hits free agency. If he retires, Cameron Brate will likely assume the No. 1 tight end spot on Tampa Bay’s depth chart.