Report: Patriots shopped Rob Gronkowski to other teams prior to draft
The rumors about the New England Patriots being on the verge of trading Rob Gronkowski last Friday turned out to be unfounded, but that does not mean the team was opposed to such a deal earlier in the offseason.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports that the Patriots called other teams about a potential Gronkowski trade as recently as three days before the start of the NFL Draft. If that report and timeline is accurate, it probably is not a coincidence that Gronkowski announced two days before the draft that he met with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and committed to playing in 2018.
At the time, Gronk openly stated that he was contemplating retirement. It’s possible the Patriots were only exploring trade scenarios for the star tight end out of fear that he might call it a career.
There have been a number of rumors over the past week about New England looking to part ways with Gronkowski, and one report said they had trade offers on the table but team owner Robert Kraft stepped in and vetoed the move because Tom Brady threatened to retire. The speculation has been so rampant that Kraft felt inclined to address it earlier this week.
