Patriots Rumors: Rob Gronkowski never considered holdout
Recent New England Patriots rumors involve tight end Rob Gronkowski, who reportedly never planned to hold out for a new deal.
One of the biggest New England Patriots rumors this offseason involved tight end, Rob Gronkowski. Gronkowski and the Patriots had a rocky offseason at times as Gronkowski was hoping to land a new contract.
The team and Gronkowski were working on restructuring his contract earlier in the offseason, but nothing came from those talks. Gronkowski didn’t participate in any voluntary workouts, showing up only for the mandatory parts of the Patriots offseason.
Things got so bad between Gronkowski and the organization that they explored trade options for their star tight end. The retirement talk earlier in the offseason from Gronkowski probably made the Patriots a little nervous about his future with the team. While he has committed to the team for this season, things could change in the future.
Gronkowski has two years remaining on his contract and will earn $8 million this season. Last year, Gronkowski received some incentives in his contract to sweeten his 2017 payment. He had hoped that something similar would happen this year, but that has not yet happened.
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In the past, we have seen players hold out when they don’t get what they are looking for. This year alone we have seen high profile players such as Earl Thomas with the Seattle Seahawks, Aaron Donald with the Los Angeles Rams, Khalil Mack of the Oakland Raiders and Le’Veon Bell with the Pittsburgh Steelers skip practices and workouts.
There are varying degrees of success when a player chooses to do that. However, that route was never one that Gronkowski considered this offseason.
"“No, it hasn’t even came close to considering that. Not even one bit,” he said after the team’s first practice of camp. “What I can do, though, is keep preparing, keep showing up every day, keep doing what I’ve got to do to get better.”"
Despite his unhappiness with his current contract, Gronkowski is not going to let that keep him from being on the field. New England rarely budges off their price, so the best way for Gronkowski to get a better deal is to show that he is still a dominant player.
Gronkowski has struggled with injuries at points in his career, but when he is on the field he is the best tight end in the league.
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With a restructure not looking to be on the horizon, all Gronkowski can do is go out there and handle his business on the field.