Rob Gronkowski spoke to FanSided on behalf of Bounty as part of their "Official Wingman of NFL Gameday" campaign. Gronk made it clear he uses Bounty to clean up spills on gameday, as well as clean his five-year-old French Bulldog. There is only one Gronk.
Somehow, 2026 marks Rob Gronkowski's sixth consecutive season away from the NFL after two years teaming with Tom Brady in Tampa Bay. The four-time first-team All-Pro is never as far from the game in spirit as he is in proximity, though, covering the game with the NFL on FOX crew. That's kept him plugged in to the goings on around the league ... but he'd love to be a little more hands on, potentially in the room, to be able to help get Drake Maye back on track after the Patriots QB faltered in last year's Super Bowl and hasn't been unlocked yet to begin his third season.
The Pats are 1-1, including a disastrous season-opening loss in Seattle, with Maye struggling to piece together a complete game without a seemingly foolish decision or aversion to playing it safe. Gronk couldn't confidently diagnose the source of the struggles, but was forced to acknowledge them.
"It feels like a combination of both [mental and mechanical issues]," Gronk told FanSided. "I feel like he's thinking a little bit too much. He's forcing the ball in there. The mechanical issues aren't really there anymore compared to last year, too."
Week 2 against the Steelers, while it wasn't always pretty, did show a path forward for the Pats in their temporarily AJ Brown-less reality
"You've got to get him comfortable. You've got to get him confident again. They've got to get the run game going - and they did last week, that's how they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. TreVeyon Henderson coming back, he missed Week 1, it was absolutely huge that he was there for Week 2," Gronk affirmed. "So get the run game going, establish the run game, protect Drake Maye in the pocket, and just build up his confidence again however they need to. I'm not there, so it's kind of hard to see ... you've got to be in person as a coach to build up that confidence again and call the plays he needs to be comfortable."
Every team - even the Patriots - is allowed a little bit of a ramp-up period, but Gronk acknowledged the AFC is coming. The Chiefs' swift return to prominence surprised him a bit, and he sees the Bills, Ravens, and Bengals as the upper echelon. Unsurprisingly, he especially seemed enthusiastic about what the city of Buffalo has in store, with a beautiful new stadium - "with real grass, they listened to the players!" - and a team to match.
Maye's road through the conference starts within the walls of his own division, and the path won't be quite as paint-by-numbers as it was last year. Still, it begins with Henderson and his blockers, leads to Brown's return, and potentially results in a playoff showcase against Patrick Mahomes and/or Josh Allen, something the football-watching public missed out on last season.
Now you realize why Gronk is itching to get back in the building. That sounds amazing.
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