New Contract For Rob Gronkowski Considered “Likely, But Not Imminent”

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, citing a source with knowledge of the situation, reports that a new contract for Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski is “likely,” but “nothing is imminent” at this point in time.

Florio’s source mentioned that there is still “plenty of work to do” regarding a new contract for Gronkowski. Florio speculates that the largest obstacle in contracts talks for the two parties could be whether Gronkowski will get another incentive-based raise or if he’ll focus on a larger portion of his base salary being guaranteed.

Last week, trade rumors surfaced that the Patriots could be nearing a trade for Gronkowski, but the news was refuted by the team, Gronkowski and others. Two sources tell Florio that the trade rumors are fake news.

In the end, Florio says that the most likely outcome is that Gronkowski gets another sweetener added to his contract, plays at least one more year for the Patriots before deciding after 2018 whether he’ll continue his NFL career.

Gronkowski, 28, is a former second-round pick of the Patriots back in 2010. He is in the sixth year of his eight-year, $55.23 million contract that included $13.17 million guaranteed.

Gronkowski has outplayed this contract by a mile and was one of the most underpaid players in the NFL. He was set to make base salaries of $8 million (2018) and $9 million (2019) over the remainder of the contract when he agreed to a restructured contract last summer.

The Patriots added some incentives to Gronkowski’s contract last year that allowed him to make $10.1875 million for the 2017 season. As of now, Gronkowski stands to earn $8.91 million for the 2018 season.

In 2017, Gronkowski appeared in 14 games and caught 69 passes for 1,084 yards receiving and eight touchdowns for the Patriots.

We’ll have more regarding Gronkowski as the news is available.