Rob Gronkowski’s comments are not what his fantasy owners want to hear
Rob Gronkowski has done almost nothing through two games, and his recent comments don’t offer hope to his fantasy owners.
With two capable tight ends already in place, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers added Rob Gronkowski as another weapon for Tom Brady. The buzz about a historic offense and Gronk being a top -tier fantasy tight end again was easy.
The renditions of Bruce Arians’ offense in Arizona did not ask much from tight ends as pass catchers. O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate shifted that narrative some in Tampa Bay last year, and with Brady coming in as the quarterback tight ends were sure to be well-involved.
Gronkowki had two catches for 11 yards on three targets against the New Orleans Saints in Week 1, then he followed with a catch-less game on one target in Week 2 against the Carolina Panthers. Even at the low end of expectations after a year out, Gronkowski hasn’t delivered.
Arians was open about the lack of targets for Gronkowski, with bluntly no concern about it.
“We’re not throwing the ball 50 times to tight ends – that’s what we have receivers for [and] that’s the way our offense is built,” Arians said earlier this week. “Gronk’s playing great run blocking in the fourth quarter, so I’m not concerned with his pass catches or his targets.”
Rob Gronkowski, blocking tight end?
Arians praised Gronkowski’s run blocking, and Gronk seemed to have fun with that when speaking to the media on Friday.
Talking with @RobGronkowski today, he had a lot of fun calling himself a “blocking tight end” repeatedly throughout the call. Gronk has had just 4 targets through two games. Obviously he’s not bothered by it. There are a lot of mouths to feed in the #bucs offense. He gets it
— James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) September 25, 2020
“I’m a blocking TE. I came here to block baby. 4 targets is 4 more than I thought I was going to get.” - Gronk when asked if he thought he’d be a larger part of the passing game so far.
— James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) September 25, 2020
Gronkowski has run 42 routes on 96 snaps through two games (a solid 73 percent snap share, according to Pro Football Reference). That has yielded the aforementioned four targets and two catches.
The corpse of Rob Gronkowski has run 42 routes so far this season and been targeted 4 times. He's turned that into a 2-11-0 line.
— Adam Levitan (@adamlevitan) September 21, 2020
Gronkowski gets some benefit of the doubt right now, after being out for a year with no team-organized offseason work or traditional training camp/preseason ramp up to the season. But even tongue-in-cheekily referring to himself as a blocking tight end is not what fantasy owners who believed he would recapture anything close to his prior glory want to hear.
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