Jeff Howe of The Ahtletic reports that the Patriots and TE Rob Gronkowski are closing in a restructured contract and it’s considered likely that Gronkowski will play the 2018 season under the new terms.
According to Howe, it remains to be seen whether Gronkowski will sign an extension or if he’ll get a raise as part of this deal.
Earlier in the week, James Palmer of NFL Media reported that the Patriots and Gronkowski were working on a restructured deal.
Palmer pointed out that if the new deal includes incentives like their prior renegotiation did, an agreement can’t be official until Thursday, May 24, which happens to be one year to the day the Patriots reworked Gronkowski’s contract.
Last year, the Patriots added some incentives to Gronkowski’s contract that allowed him to make $10.1875 million for the 2017 season. This year, Gronkowski stands to earn $8.91 million, so it’s possible that the Patriots could make a similar adjustment to the one made last year to boost Gronkowski’s earnings based on his 2018 performance.
Gronkowski was reportedly weighing the possibility of retiring from the NFL this offseason before his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, met with Patriots HC Bill Belichick last month and informed him that he will return.
“It was very positive and Rob is committed,” Rosenhaus said.
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 $4.25 million (2017), $8 million (2018) and $9 million (2019) over the remainder of the contract when he agreed to a restructured contract this summer.
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 changes to Gronkowski’s contract as the news is available.
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