Patriots Could Make TE Rob Gronkowski Available For Trade?

Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal (via TheBigLead.com) spoke with a “Bill Belichick-friendly source” who agreed with him that once a player begins to make Belichick contemplate life without him, Belichick starts to warm up to the idea of being without the player.

“He imagines you gone,” Bedard’s source said before adding that the longer TE Rob Gronkowski goes without saying he’s all in, the chances of him being traded increase.

Bedard added that the one landing spot for Gronkowski that could make the most sense is the 49ers, as it would allow him to be reunited with Jimmy Garoppolo. In fact, Bedard spoke to trusted league sources and it was clear that San Francisco was the “runaway leader” in terms of a speculative landing spot for Gronkowski.

Bedard also floats the Rams as a possibility.

This comes just a day after Albert Breer mentioned that his sense regarding Gronkowski is that it’s going to take a pay raise for him to return for the 2018 season. Breer added that he’d make a call to New England if he was another team to see if Gronkowski is available for trade and whether Belichick has reached the point where he’s ready to deal Gronk.

There has been a lot of speculation about Gronkowski’s future this offseason after he told reporters following the Super Bowl that he planned to take some time and sit down this offseason before deciding whether he’ll return for the 2018 season.

Previous reports have said that Gronkowski was is considering retirement to pursue a career in acting and had been told by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Sylvester Stallone that he could make millions of dollars in action films.

Beyond that, Gronkowski was reportedly concerned about the toll injuries have taken on him over the years, as he’s dealt with a number of serious injuries including ACL and back surgeries.

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 Gronkowski as the news is available.