New England Patriots: Dawn of a new deal for Rob Gronkowski?

After all the offseason drama, New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski may end up getting a new deal.

Let’s face it, Rob Gronkowski is the most dominant playmaker on the field in the NFL when healthy. As annoyed as New England Patriots fans and the team became with the history making tight end, there is no doubt that he deserves to be paid.

Following months of a rather passive-aggressive flirtation with retirement, Gronkowski finally said he will play in 2018 with a sudden renewed commitment to chasing another Super Bowl ring.

That assurance came after what his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, called a positive meeting with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. The end conclusion: Rob Gronkowski was looking for a new contract all along.

Now that the two sides are at least involved in positive communication, NFL Insider Ian Rapopport has reported that the team is open to reworking Gronkowski’s contract similar to what they did a year ago when he ended up raking in $10.19 million.

With the 28-year-old tight end basically on a year-to-year status at this point, that may be the best solution for both Rob Gronkowski and the New England Patriots. One thing is for sure after all of this is that the All-Pro tight end is done with the home discounts.

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Former Patriots executive Michael Lombardi backed up that certainly while speaking about both Gronkowski and Tom Brady’s current contract status in an appearance on The Ringer’s “GM Street” podcast:

"“What I think is going on in New England, and this is just my own instinct, I think when you win five Super Bowls and you’ve had as much success as they’ve had and they have all swallowed the ‘we’re not making all this money’ routine, ‘we’re not taking all coin.’ They have done that and I think now is the time where they are all saying to themselves, ‘it’s money time.”"

With the contracts that have been going around to lesser value tight ends and quarterbacks around the league, it is more of a respect factor at this point. Gronkowski will enter the season as the fourth highest-paid tight end, but the most dominant when healthy.

We all saw what he did in Pittsburgh in Week 15 and is performance down the stretch in Super Bowl LII put an exclamation point as to how valuable Rob Gronkowski is to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

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In other words, it is time to pay this man like the top offensive weapon he is…at least for a season. Beyond that, there is no guarantee that Gronkowski will celebrate with a Gronk spike in any end zone in 2019.

Perhaps it will be a wrestling move in the WWE.

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