Gronk traded to Tampa
Appears he is coming out of retirement to team back up with Brady.
Nope. He came back for OJ Howard
He came back to prove Tampa is a more desirable city than Boston.
He came back for $10 million.
$10 Million? Shit man...Gronk is making more than most hospital CEOs.
Have you been to either?
Also said a deal was worked out to trade him to Detroit 2 years ago, but he said he'd rather retire than play with another QB.
Yeah but, in fairness to Gronk, A LOT of really good players have said they’d rather retire than play for the Lions. Usually after they’ve spent years playing for the Lions.
Friendly summary of the Detroit Lions and generational talent:
- Generational RB Barry Sanders; retires in prime
- Generational WR Calvin Johnson; retires in prime
- Generational TE Rob Gronkowski; threatens retirement upon trade to Detroit
Nobody makes the best players retire like the Lions. Nobody.
I've generally argued against drafting Tua in part because Stafford is really good right now and still has ~5 years of his prime left.
But for this reason and this reason only I consider Stafford a significant retirement risk.
The lie-downs should only draft sparties and buckeyes as what better way to fuck with their NFL careers than to have them play for the lie-downs!
Eh. Define “really good.” Is he good enough to carry this team to win anything of meaning in the next 5 years? My guess would be no. He’s also 32 years old. My guess would also be that he’s not going to be “in his prime” in his mid 30’s with a recurring back injury.
At the end of the day he’s an above average QB on a team lacking talent with a horrible franchise management group. He is what he is at this point.
I’d rather take the chance on the young QB being touted as a generational talent. If that pans out, great. Fantastic. If it doesn’t, does anything really change with the Lions? We aren’t winning with Stafford. We would just continue not winning. Which... it’s the Lions... so yeah. Seems like low risk, high reward.
He’s good enough that the size of the leap from him to the Tua people think will happen in the NFL isn’t big enough to get the Lions over the hump. They need too many pieces. Better to acquire more day 1/2 picks via trade, and fill more holes. Gives a better chance at winning then drafting an injury prone QB onto a team with an Oline with 4 question marks out of 5 thats about to lose the entire receiving corps next year. Tua wouldn’t stand a chance here.
April 22nd, 2020 at 11:23 AM ^
But it’s better to put yourself in a situation where you’re trying to build the team with/around a young QB than rebuild with a QB in his mid 30’s. That’s the point. Youre Not winning with your highly paid QB in his mid 30’s. Get rid of him. You’re going nowhere with him. In fact, he’ll win JUSTTTTT enough to keep your team stuck in neutral and keep them from ever adding any meaningful talent. Get Tua, sit him a year or two, get a Ryan Fitzpatrick type to bridge the gap.
If your team isn’t going to win anything in the next 5 years anyway, what is the benefit of doing it with a QB in his mid 30’s instead of taking the chance on the super talented young kid?
Or in the case of Billy Sims, sign a 5 year contract with another team in another league AFTER signing a 5 year contract with the Lions the same month.
Not that he’s a generational talent or anything, but Damon Harrison was a highly regarded all pro level player when the Lions traded for him.
Year and a half later and he’s a shadow of himself and couldn’t get out of Detroit fast enough.
Also don’t forget to mention that Barry Sanders retired when he was roughly 1500 yards away from breaking the most hallowed record in pro football.
THAT’S how soul crushing playing for the Lions is.
Snacks was playing out of position according to him on Chris Long's podcast.
He prefers to play head up on the center so he can wreck shit immediately rather than between the C and OG and have to guess who's gonna block him. That's part of football on the D line but that was his reason.
Gronk going to Tampa Bay is the most Florida thing ever.
All those photoshopped pictures of Tampa Bay Brady with cornrows, grillz, and gold chains around is his neck is actually what Gronk will look like after a year
Sending a big FU to Bellichek. Hope they win it all.
How's Tampa's defense? Seems they rank anywhere from average to good based on the source/metric.
I have read they have a fairly talented offense with very good receivers. Adding Gronk is obviously big.
Does Tampa have a legitimate shot at winning a title with Brady?
#5 Defense in S&P+. Not sure how their OL is, but if it's even average I think they will have a shot with top 5 D paired with Brady and those offensive weapons.
OL could definitely use some improvement. They're practically a lock to take an OT with the 14th pick.
They need to go after some OL via trade (Williams) or the draft. It's not a terrible OL along the interior, but the OTs aren't great.
It will be fun watching Brady teamed with Bruce Ariens, who is a very innovative offensive coach. And his personality is waaayyyy different than Belichick's
Pretty good front seven with guys like JPP on Suh on the DL and then Lavonte David/Devin White at LB, but the secondary is incredibly suspect. Part of that, granted, has to do with having to play Drew Brees and Matt Ryan two times each, but their secondary has been pretty bad for a long time. I don't expect much to change next year on that front.
I think their defense will be decent to good next year, probably middle of the pack in the NFL when its all said and done, but it'll be held back by the secondary. Saints are still the team to beat in the NFC South.
The defense was also held back by the fact that Winston turned the ball over a gazillion times. You take away most of those TOs and their defense is likely even better.
Rushing D #1 and passing D #12 In 2019 on the advanced stats on football outsiders. I wouldn’t call any of that a “incredibly Suspect secondary”.
It’s Belichick.
If Gronk can stay on the field, the Bucs may have one of the best offenses ever. so many legit weapons.
Only thing missing for Tampa Bay is your classic 'Patriots' pass catching running back. Plenty to choose from in this years draft.
Man, if they got Jonathan Taylor or that running back from LSU...watch out.
Gonna be hilarious to get Brady in TB, get Gronk out of retirement to play with him... and then the season get cancelled and neither of them ever play another down.
Hilarious, in a gallows humor kind of way. I would be genuinely interested to see how TB does playing in TB. Watching brady has helped me with my lions problem....
Exactly why I did not shed any tears with the Josh Cristopher and Isaiah Todd change of heart. They were not likely to play a game at Michigan.
Despite how historically bad the Lions have been - Tampa Bay for the longest time was considered the laughingstock of the NFL. They are now so much more respected than Detroit.
Having a Super Bowl to your name helps. If nothing else, history shows the Bucs can be good.
Whether or not they will be is another story entirely.
Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp.
Lions passed on Sapp in the draft, he smoked weed. Did the same with Randy Moss.
Are you sure about this?
Sapp was picked 12th by Tampa Bay (in the 95 draft).
Lions picked 20th.
-----
But Lions did pass on Moss. They picked Terry Fair with the 20th pick in the 98 draft. Vikings picked Moss on the next pick.
Warrick Dunn certainly helped too
Warren Sapp is a pretty awful human being, but my god could he rush the QB. One man wrecking crew who could obliterate offensive gameplans by himself.
Brooks was one of the best linebackers of the last 20-30 years and gets nowhere near the recognition he deserves, despite making the HoF. If he played for In NY, Chicago, Dallas or some other big market team, he would’ve been a household name.
By whom, exactly? I mean the Bucs have won 55 games since 2010, haven't made the playoffs in 13 years while their divisional rivals have each made the Super Bowl in the past decade.
The reason Brady went to Tampa Bay is multifactored but there is really no downside because he has nothing to lose by playing there. He is going to a team that plays tough within its division but never competes to win it against teams led by HOF caliber qb talent in New Orleans and Atlanta he faced and beat in the Super Bowl.
The worst team in the NFC South now becomes a likely contender while the Carolina Panthers become the dregs of the division in complete rebuild mode with a new coach and staff and Chris McCaffery now its highest paid player and face of the franchise.
That came with the ring they won with probably one of the best defenses in recent history (with Sapp, Lynch et al)
get your sterilized popcorn ready
I love how this might answer the Brady vs Belicheck debate.
I'll go ahead and clear up that non-sense debate.
Tom Brady - greatest QB of all time
Bill Belichick - greatest coach of all time
Ok cool. Hook em.
If Gronk is actually healthy and stays healthy, that's a whole ton of firepower for the Bucs. But:
Will it all mesh? Can the OL protect Brady? Was Belichek the true ringmaster in all of this? Can Brady do in a much tougher NFC South what he did in a historically weak AFC East?
Even if all of that falls in Tampa's favor, the season could still be cancelled.
It’s Belichick.