The New England Patriots were without their two most important offensive players when organized team activities got underway on Monday, but at least one of the two could reportedly be showing up in the near future.
Both Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski were absent from the voluntary workouts, with the former seeming more likely to stay away from the team until mandatory minicamp next month. As for Gronk, a source told Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that the star tight end will show up for OTAs “at some point.”
Per source, Rob Gronkowski may not be at OTAs today, but he will be there at some point.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) May 21, 2018
Gronkowski said earlier in the offseason that he was contemplating retirement, but he has since committed to playing in 2018. However, it sounds as though he wants more money, and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports that the contract is “still an issue.”
At this point, it’s not clear if #Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski will show for OTAs, as his contract is still an issue. But one source said the expectation is that Tom Brady and Gronk will be there for minicamp in June when it’s mandatory.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 21, 2018
Gronkowski missed just one game due to injury last season, and he is said to be having some issues with Bill Belichick over training. His base salary for 2018 is $8 million, which is $2 million less than the average Jimmy Graham is getting with the three-year, $30 million deal he signed with the Green Bay Packers. Last year, Gronk restructured his contract so that he had more than $5 million in incentives built in for 2017. He ended up earning all of them and making nearly $11 million, but he probably feels he should not have to deal with escalators in his contract going forward.
