Gronk
By One of the greatest tight ends in NFL history has retired, and Barnwell had a good tribute:
The magic of Gronk is that he gave the Patriots a way to make defenses wrong before the ball was even snapped. Le’Veon Bell marketed himself (unrealistically) as a legitimate No. 1 running back and No. 2 wideout, but Gronkowski was the guy who was really the biggest mismatch in football. A healthy Gronkowski gave the Patriots the option of employing a starting-caliber wide receiver or a sixth offensive lineman on every single snap, and they used that flexibility to whip opposing defenses.
Of course, what happened after the snap was pretty special, too. Gronkowski’s legacy will stand as one of the most devastating touchdown producers in league history. In an offense in which Brady famously loves to spread the ball around and other teams routinely committed double-teams toward Gronk in the red zone, there still wasn’t any stopping the tight end. He caught a touchdown once every 6.6 receptions, and, as ESPN’s Matthew Berry pointed out, averaged 0.69 touchdowns per regular-season game. Both figures rank third all time among receivers with 500 catches or more, with Gronk trailing former teammate Randy Moss in both categories.
Throw out his limited 2018 season (and reduce the threshold to 470 catches) and Gronk would hold the record in both categories. And in what amounted to a full 16-game season of playoff games over his nine-year career, Gronkowski posted an 81-1,163-12 line, good for virtually identical touchdown rates to his regular-season marks. That’s without even considering his blocking, which played a huge role in New England running for 485 yards across their three playoff wins last season. Gronk was a stunningly consistent, often transcendent weapon.
I’d say this chart pretty much says at all:
To use Bill James’s old terminology, in terms of career value Gronk’s career has been too short to be seriously considered as the best ever. But in terms of peak value — given his extraordinary combination of pass-catching and blocking ability I’m inclined to think he’s the greatest of the post-merger era. Robert Mays has more. As for whether he’s a first ballot Hall of Famer, I mean…Earl Campbell was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, I don’t think many people would quibble with that, and he started only 2 more games than Gronkowski, and (because of the ridiculous workload his coaches gave him) was only a dominant player for 3 years. And Gronk was, as Barnwell says, probably the second-greatest player on the greatest NFL dynasty ever. This isn’t a close call — first ballot all the way and it’s not close.
I’m tempted to say that the door for the Patriots has finally closed. Then I look at their division, see a Dolphins team that is tanking deliberately rather than inadvertently, Josh Allen’s bills, and a team coached by Adam Gase and QB who I like a lot more long-term but was barely better than Allen last year, and then I see a Chiefs team that doesn’t seem serious about fixing its defense, and…I ain’t saying it.