Ian Rapoport Releases Huge Statement On Rob Gronkowki’s Retirement Decision

There is still chance that Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski stays with the team in 2019. The Patriots plan their season under the assumption that Gronk will play on the field. That’s what NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport says.

“My understanding is, when you talk to people close to him, they think there is a better chance that he comes back again than he doesn’t,” Rapoport said on the NFL Network Wednesday. “I do believe that the Patriots are at least tentatively planning as if they will have Gronk for the 2019 season. Obviously a big question still needs to be answered, but that is which way it’s trending.” 

Rapoport made the report at the time Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk and ESPN’s Adam Schefter said that things look really great for the Patriots and Gronk.

“I was told on Super Bowl Sunday that if he emerges from the Super Bowl healthy and he knows [Tom] Brady is all in for another year, there’s a good chance he comes back, which is a surprise,” Florio told M&C last week. “It is a major shift from how he was thinking a year ago. But, he got through the year largely unscathed. He’s healthy. He’s feeling good. Maybe he’s thinking, and maybe Tom Brady has been working on him, maybe that Alex Guerrero book has got him something in his avocado ice cream that is making him love football a little bit more.

“It would be a surprise if he changes his mind and plays, but the longer this goes on — when he said after the Super Bowl he would make his decision in a week or two, that told me he would announce the decision he already made in a week or two and he’s retiring. Here we are a month later and he hasn’t announced a decision yet, maybe he is thinking about it a little bit longer than he did last year.”