Rob Gronkowski relies on Tom Brady to study opponents before game day and it's working
Regarded by many as the best tight end in history, Rob Gronkowski is a serious weapon on offense for Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Gronk has been at the height of his powers for the best part of the last decade as he has been Brady’s go-to guy in the end zone.
After playing all 16 games for the Buccaneers last year, catching 45 passes for 623 yards and seven touchdowns, Gronk still didn’t look his best. This could be due in part to the fact that he had a full year off in 2019.
But now, after an entire offseason and OTAs, Gronkowski seems to be in the best shape of his life and that is scary for the rest of the NFL.
Gronk has been in superb form in the opening two games of the NFL season. He has caught 12 of his 13 targets for 129 yards and a league-high four touchdown receptions. The future Hall of Famer’s projected stats are ridiculous.
According to ESPN.com, Gronkowski is on track to have 96 receptions for 1,032 receiving yards and 32 touchdowns. Now it is hard to fathom whether Gronk will match these projected numbers, but he is off to an absolute flyer to start the year.
Gronkowski doesn't watch or study film
One thing nearly all NFL players do is watch film. It all requires a lot of work, whether to see your performance, how opposing defenses/offenses like to play, and what schemes they run.
However, Gronkowski has stated that he doesn’t watch film in the lead-up to games. The Tampa tight end was a guest on ESPN2’s Monday Night Football’s Manning Cast and Gronk revealed that monitoring and studying film is not part of his game preparation.
Gronk joined the Manning Brothers' MNF broadcast and it was a great time 🤣 https://t.co/VwnVx7l3ow
Gronkowski revealed in his appearance on Manning Cast:
"My teammate Cam Brate just asked me the other day, he goes, 'Rob, I have a serious question: Do you ever watch film?' And I said, 'No, I don't. I just run by guys. If I'm feeling good, I'm feeling good.' So I don't watch film. I do watch film when the team is showing it. And every once in a while, I watch games, like right now."
Gronkowski added that he relies on Tom Brady to help him understand defensive schemes:
"I do go up to Tom because I know Tom watches like I don't know, 40 hours of film a week, and go, 'Tom, who is covering me, and what type of coverages are they doing?"
While it seems unconventional for NFL players not to watch film as it is a big part of the job, not studying appears to work well for Rob Gronkowski.