Bill Belichick on Tim Tebow, Rob Gronkowski
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick fielded questions on Rob Gronkowski, Tim Tebow, and other subjects during today’s press conference. He delivered one quote on the possibility of keeping Tebow on the future, and he also addressed Gronkowski’s return to the practice field (well, re-return, but we all remember how weird the last presser on that subject was). Gronk practiced in full pads for the first time yesterday, and he was able to get into some team drills today and share first-team reps with Zach Sudfeld.
New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (87) reacts after his touchdown against the Colts. The Patriots won 59-24. David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
The Patriots release of Tim Tebow probably signals the end of Tebow’s run in the NFL, but you definitely have to give him credit for not giving up. It would be nice to see him latch on somewhere, but the fact that he doesn’t have practice squad eligibility really hurts his chances. Ultimately, that’s what did him in here in New England.
Bill Belichick is likely just being vague on purpose, but he did leave the door open for Tebow’s return, “I don’t know what’s going to happen during the year, but certainly we’ve had a lot of players that have left here and come back here. I don’t think that would be any … it’s already happened multiple times this year, so.”
I read this as “it’s possible but not likely”.
It’s always interesting to see how Bill Belichick addresses injury news, because he mostly trolls the media. Belichick and other coaches and teams don’t have to give us injury updates on players at this point, so Belichick predictably referred to Rob Gronkowski as being day-to-day several times.
He said, “No, just the next step. We evaluate any player coming back from injury as day-to-day. That’s what we do with every player. We evaluate each player day to day and then we look at his situation the next day. If he’s improved and able to move ahead then we move him ahead. If not, then we keep him where he is or sometimes we have to step back a little bit and then move ahead. It just depends on each individual player, his situation and what his progress is.”
Belichick also added that “Nobody has a crystal ball” (good one there), but he did acknowledge the fact that Gronkowski was in full pads during yesterday’s practice. Smokescreen here? I don’t think so. I believe we’ll see Gronk playing in Week 3 or 4, and my money is on Week 3 based on the (relatively) early releases of Jake Ballard and Daniel Fells.