3 logical reasons why Rob Gronkowski shouldn't retire from NFL
brady' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'>brady-600th-td-ball" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-is-sponsored="false">Rob Gronkowski came out of retirement to play with Tom Brady. After the quarterback's exit from the NFL, the tight end is stuck with a tough choice to make.
Should he retire for the second and final time? Should he continue on and play for another year? Looking at his situation, there are three great reasons why the tight end should stick around, at least for 2022.
Why Rob Gronkowski should stick around
#1 - Trending up
The tight end's career can be broken up into several distinct eras. 2010-2013 was a humble era, with the tight end earning well under 1000 yards in three of the four seasons.
The 2014-2017 era was the peak of his career, earning more than 1000 yards in three of the four seasons. From 2017 until today, the tight end is back under 1000 yards in each of the last four seasons (including the missed season).
The TE free agent market will be very interesting this offseason: Mike Gesicki, Dalton Schultz, Zach Ertz, Rob Gronkowski, David Njoku, Robert Tonyan, Evan Engram, Hayden Hurst, Eric Ebron, CJ Uzomah, OJ Howard, Gerald Everett, Jimmy Graham, Tyler Conklin, Mo Alix-Cox, Jared Cook
However, while the tight end's prime is behind him, he started to trend upwards in 2021.
In 2020, he caught 45 passes for 623 yards. In 2021, he caught 55 passes for 802 yards. Why not see if the trend continues?
#2 - In range of moving past an all-time great
According to Statmuse, Gronkowski is only 700 yards behind the total of an all-time great. Shannon Sharpe has 9961 total receiving yards in his career.
Meanwhile, the former Patriots quarterback has 9286 yards. In passing Shannon Sharpe, the tight end would be fourth in career receiving yards.
Age: 32
Gronk twitter.com/nfluk/status/1…
To pass the next player, Antonio Gates, he would need another 2000 yards on top of the 700, which may be out of reach. That said, he could still pass Sharpe with one more season at his most recent pace.
#3 - Chance to prove he can succeed without Tom Brady
So far, Gronkowski has only played with Tom Brady. He has been stuck to the side of the quarterback. All of his accomplishments are tied to Brady.
Now would be the time for him to try something new and prove that he can succeed without Brady. He has expressed interest in playing with Joe Burrow earlier this year, so perhaps that could be a good landing spot.
Put simply, considering Gronkowski's age at almost 33 years old, he doesn't have time to spend with a rebuild. Wherever he goes needs to be in a Super Bowl window.
At this point, the tight end has enough career accolades where any team would love to have him. The question is, does he want them? Does he even want to play football in 2022?