Rob Gronkowski “Pretty Certain” He’ll Return For 2018 Season

Jeff Darlington, citing a source close to Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski, reports that he’s “pretty certain” he’ll return to the Patriots for the 2018 season as long as Tom Brady remains with the team.

Gronkowski has been weighing retirement because of physical and mental fatigue, but Darlington says he’s now more likely to be back.

According to Darlington, there is “lingering frustration” between Gronkowski and HC Bill Belichick along with some other members of the organization.

Darlington adds that nothing has changed since the end of the 2017 season to convince Gronkowski that some of these issues are going to change and Gronk knows he’ll need to be ready for a similar toll on both his body and mind should he return to the team.

Sources have told Gronkowski that Belichick has expressed frustrations about Gronkowski and questioned whether he’s still “all in.”

Even so, sources close to Gronkowski and Belichick have told Darlington that they believe any existing friction between the two will ease and the discord between the two is not considered irreconcilable.

There has been some recent speculation that the Patriots could consider trading Gronkowski and Darlington admits that “all possibilities will remain on the table should this situation linger deep into April.

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.