Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, citing a source with knowledge of the situation, reports that the Patriots expect both QB Tom Brady and TE Rob Gronkowski to play in 2018.
However, Florio says that is still lingering frustration between Patriots’ players including Brady and Gronkowski regarding the team’s surprising decision to bench CB Malcolm Butler for the Super Bowl.
The team hasn’t offered any explanation for why the move was made and even players have said that they never heard from the team regarding why the move was made.
Florio adds that Gronkowski may want a raise from the Patriots, given that he’s underpaid by market value standards.
Regarding Butler, Florio says there’s no way the Titans would have committed $30 million guaranteed to him this offseason if there was a major issue with his ability or attitude.
Brady, 40, is a former sixth-round pick of the Patriots back in 2000. He signed a two-year, $41 million contract extension with the Patriots back in 2016, which included a $28 million signing bonus. Brady stands to make a base salary of just $15 million in both 2018 and 2019.
In 2017, Brady appeared in all 16 games for the Patriots and threw for 4,577 yards while completing 66.3 percent of his passes to go along with 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 1 quarterback out of 39 qualifying players.
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 Brady and Gronkowski as the news is available.
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