Rob Gronkowski's murky future with the Buccaneers might be becoming a bit clearer days removed from the Bucs divisional round loss to the Rams.
The Tampa Bay tight end, widely viewed as the greatest to ever play in the NFL, told TMZ Sports Wednesday he'd retire if the NFL made him choose right now.
"If they're like, 'Rob, you've got to decide right now, right this second if you're playing next year,' I would say no right now," Gronk said. "I would be like, 'No, I'm not playing.'"
Speaking on Babcock and Mojo, Gronk said he's too beat up right now at the conclusion of his 11th season in the NFL.
"If I had an answer right now," Gronk said of the possibility of playing another year, "it would be no."
Gronkowsky spoke about his future at the Bucs' end-of-season media availability and wouldn't commit to playing in 2022. He said he needed three to five weeks to process the end of the season and look at what his next step may be.
"You can't make a decision in that mindset," Gronkowski said, per The Athletic.
Now, just four days removed from his postgame comments, the tight end still hasn't finished that recovery period he set for himself, which he ackowledged to TMZ Sports.
"I just want to heal completely, see where my thoughts are from there," Gronk said. "Just let things settle down -- got to just heal a little bit. Fix all the bumps and bruises."
Then, he'll make that decision.
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Gronkowski, 32, has already retired once. He called it quits after the 2018 NFL season, his ninth with the Patriots, and spent 2019 out of football. However, Tom Brady lured him back to the NFL and convinced him to play for the Bucs, where he has spent each of the last two seasons.
Brady, 44, announced his retirement after 22 seasons citing competitive commitment and family despite posting the second-most passing yards in NFL history (5,316).
Gronk and Brady are close. Are their decisions connected? Not necessarily, according to Gronkowski, who said he would consider playing even if Brady wasn't going to quarterback the Buccaneers.
"There could be a scenario like that," Gronkowski said. "I'd never throw anything off the board because you never know how anything's going to play out."
The Buccaneers are not ruling out Rob Gronkowski's return despite Tom Brady retiring, either.
"I'm giving Rob the respect to give him some time to see how he feels here in the next coming of weeks after a long, grueling season," Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said. "When you played in the league for 11 years, you need a little time to think things through to see if you want to go through with it for another year. From my conversations with Rob, he just needs that. I don't think it's going to be dependent on whether Tom came back or not from what I understand, and I know that Rob had an incredible experience here as well. He was a big factor in us having the success that we had. We would welcome Rob back with open arms, but we're giving him his space right now to decide on what he wants to do."
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Of course, it's worth noting that Gronkowski has only expressed an interest in playing with Brady at quarterback during his career. He once threatened to retire if he was traded away from Brady and the Patriots, per ESPN's Adam Schefter, while his agent Drew Rosenhaus has said before that Gronkowski only returned from retirement to play with Brady.
That makes it seem like Gronkowski would retire if Brady calls it quits, but perhaps his tune has changed after playing with his Buccaneers teammates. He spoke glowingly of his teammates and the Tampa Bay locker room during his postseason availability.
"That's what makes football so great, is having that special bond with your teammates," Gronkowski said. "It's very hard to get that anywhere else in life. To have a team where everyone works together, to have this many people on a team, to just build those relationships and bonds that we all have in this locker room, I mean, it's something special to have that. This locker room was definitely up there. Everyone was very close."
"It's a very close locker room."
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) January 24, 2022
🗣️: @RobGronkowski pic.twitter.com/l6RZsq3TPZ
So maybe, Gronkowski will stick around even without Brady if he craves that camaraderie.
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All that said, Gronk's future is murky right now. The Bucs should have a better idea of whether he will be available before he hits free agency. If he does retire, Cameron Brate will likely assume the top tight end spot on the Tampa Bay depth chart.