In what has been a wild off-season for the New England Patriots, another domino of the Tom Brady era fell. Patriots traded Rob Gronkowski to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in exchange for a fourth-round pick in this year’s draft. The trade marks an end of an era that saw Gronk become one of the most successful tight ends in all of the National Football League.
He helped bring back the tight end position at a time when the tight end was not thought of as a primary pass-catchers. With several Super Bowl appearances, Pro Bowl appearances, and over 7000 receiving yards, he truly left a mark on the Patriots organization.
I give my four thoughts on the Patriots trading Rob Gronkowski and what it means for both organizations moving forward.
Tom Brady gets a security blanket back
The trade of Rob Gronkowski to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will certainly benefit an aging Tom Brady. Having Mike Evans and Chris Godwin is a bonus. However, a huge part of their game is relying on the deep ball. That’s not the only part of their game, but it’s certainly a huge part of what they do. Brady has never been a top-notch deep ball quarterback to begin with, and having Gronkowski will give him in a security blanket.
We saw last year how much the tight end position truly means to the New England Patriots offense. Not having Gronkowski ( or a playmaking threat at the position) really hurt Brady. There were times when Brady needed a security blanket to throw to, and he didn’t have that. As a result, he often had to throw to the outside receivers or Julian Edelman. The problem with that was, it was extremely predictable for a defense.
Having Gronkowski in Tampa Bay will allow the Buccaneers to have several options for Brady to throw to. If Gronk plays at a level similar to what he did in New England, Brady will have a security blanket. At the very least, he will give Brady a target to throw to in the red zone.
The Patriots are in full rebuild mode
The Patriots are in full rebuild mode. That’s definitely something that was apparent in the trade. They do not have to rebuild defensively, but they’re doing so offensively
In this trade, the Patriots received a fourth-round pick from Tampa Bay. The organization now has 12 picks heading into Thursday’s first round. This gives the Patriots several options that they can explore. They can either keep all of their picks, or use these picks as capital to trade to get into better draft position. There are a ton of ways that they can use them, and they will certainly need to as they enter a new era of football.
It will be interesting to see how they use these picks, and what positions they value more than others.
Tampa Bay will fare even better in the red zone
Tampa Bay will continue to succeed in the red zone. They were already a solid team in terms of scoring touchdowns in the red zone. Now, they will be even better.
Last year, they were third in the league in red zone touchdown percentage at a 64.81% clip. That was slightly better than their 60% mark in 2018. They had a much better red zone touchdown percentage on the road than at home, converting at a 70.97% clip away, while only converting 56.52% of the time at home.
Gronkowski will make them unstoppable in the red zone as he will use every bit of his six-foot-six, 240 pound frame to gain an upper hand on his defender. Tampa will undoubtedly become an even more difficult team to stop.
Defenses will have a harder time game planning for these situations. This was a smart move for Tampa Bay just looking at it from a red zone perspective. This will give them another option to throw to in a part of the field that they already excel at.
The Patriots should’ve received a Tampa tight end in this deal
The Patriots should have gotten a ready-made tight end from Tampa Bay as part of the trade. O.J. Howard could have been an option for New England moving forward, and he should have at least been part of the package.
Howard has been a consistent player ever since he came into the league. He made an impact right away in his rookie year, catching 26 passes for 432 yards and six touchdowns.
He followed that up with an even better 2018 season, catching 34 passes for 565 yards and five touchdowns. Last year, he really had to battle with Cameron Brate for snaps. Even still, he managed to record 459 yards receiving.
Howard has been the subject of trade rumors, so New England could in theory still get him. However, I thought New England would at least get the veteran tight end from Tampa in the deal. Howard made the most sense to me in terms of a return in this trade. He has been the subject of potential trade rumors for several years now. I thought that we would see him in a deal here.
