Bill Belichick was not in a talkative mood Tuesday morning at the annual coaches breakfast at the NFL owners meetings in Arizona.
This included questions regarding Rob Gronkowski retiring Sunday night, a full two weeks after the legal tampering period of free agency began.
What was the Gronkowski decision process like from his perspective?
“The offseason is the offseason,” Belichick replied.
Did delaying the announcement until now impact constructing the roster?
“That element occurs every offseason,” he said.
And a follow-up.
"I already made my comments on Rob. I honestly don't have anything to add,” he said.
Any thought on agent Drew Rosenhaus’ scenario where Gronkowski could return to the team in the middle of the season?
“Yeah, I’m not dealing in hypothetical questions,” Belichick said.
Looking at these responses, it could be easy to jump to the conclusion that Belichick is upset with Gronkowski and the position he’s put the team in by waiting until now to retire, but that was exactly how he was the entire 43-minute session. According to Jeff Howe of The Athletic, Belichick took 116 questions (2.7 questions per minute) and said 1,790 words, an average of 15.4 per response.
Relating to the rest of the offseason, while the team didn’t officially know for sure until Sunday afternoon that Gronkowski would be retiring, it appears they planned on it happening.
It came out on Tuesday that the Patriots were one of the teams to be in the mix for Antonio Brown. Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert and Belichick spoke on the phone, and Pittsburgh would have dealt Brown to New England if the offer was right. It seems the right offer never was presented, but it says something that the Patriots were in on the star receiver.
It’s highly unlikely the Patriots would have been able to take on both Brown and Gronkowski’s salaries for 2019, so this suggests Belichick and the organization had an idea the tight end would no longer be in the picture.
Speaking with NBC Sports’ Peter King Sunday night, Rosenhaus said Belichick had called him late last week to check in on Gronkowski’s status. The agent then called Gronkowski and said he should think about making a decision soon as the Patriots need to know, and then a few days later was when he officially made his announcement.
Some have argued Gronkowski should have let the Patriots know sooner so they could have had the $10 million in cap space to sign his replacement. But, who would that replacement have been?
The tight end market was extremely weak this offseason. Of these names, are there any that the Patriots regret potentially missing out on? Jesse James, Tyler Kroft, C.J. Uzomah and Jeff Heuerman. Didn’t think so.
Jared Cook’s name gets mentioned as he agreed to sign with the Saints late last week and reportedly chose them over the Patriots because he felt he had an easier chance of being the No. 1 tight end. Obviously, that would have been different if he knew Gronkowski would be retired, but even now he hasn’t officially signed, so he's had the last several days to change his mind.
Gronkowski delaying his decision really hasn’t impacted anything with the Patriots this offseason, but if he had waited until closer to the draft it may have, which is likely why Belichick reached out last week to get a decision.
While Belichick obviously would rather have Gronkowski on the team than not, despite how he acted Tuesday, he likely doesn’t have much issue with how the whole process played out.
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