It has been three weeks since NFL trade rumors spread rampant across the Internet that Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski was set to be traded. Things have calmed down since that time, and both parties – the Patriots and Gronk – have played nice. But we did learn from multiple outlets since then that the Pats did indeed look to trade Gronkowski. It’s just that the timeline is still iffy.
It didn’t come out until this most recent trade buzz that the Pats looked at trading Gronkowski around NFL Draft time in late April.
“Per a league source, the Patriots were calling other teams about a possible Gronkowski trade as recently as three days before the draft,” Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio wrote. “Coincidentally (or not), Gronkowski ended nearly three months of uncertainty regarding his future by declaring publicly that he would play in 2018 only two days before the draft.
“It’s not known what the Patriots wanted or whether a deal was actually close. If it was, it never got to the point where Brady made a power play and Kraft made a boss move, literally.”
NFL Trade Rumors Rob Gronkowski
The MMQB’s Albert Breer got into specifics about a potential Gronkowski trade while appearing on Colin Cowherd’s radio show.
“I don’t think [the Patriots] were shopping Gronk to the entire league, but there were some teams they trust that I know they talked to,” Breer said. “Detroit, Tennessee, Houston, San Francisco – you guys can make the connections there.”
The 49ers have been the most talked about team in regards to a Gronkowski trade given that Jimmy Garoppolo is now the quarterback in San Francisco. Garoppolo and Gronk developed a solid rapport in New England, though it must be pointed out that Garoppolo never actually completed a pass to No. 87 during the 2016 season in which he stood in for the suspended Tom Brady.
This is the deadest period of the year in terms of NFL transactions, so it’s more likely that trade talks would kick back up around the start of training camp in late July, if they do at all.
