Buccaneers officially trade for Rob Gronkowsi; O.J. Howard will be next
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots have come to terms on a deal that will send TE Rob Gronkowski to Tampa. Is O.J. Howard next?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots have come to terms on a deal that will send TE Rob Gronkowski to be reunited with his former teammate Tom Brady.
The Buccaneers will trade a fourth-round pick for Gronkowski and a seventh-round pick from the Patriots, according to reports from Adam Schefter. The trade is pending a physical from Gronkowski.
Trade, pending physical: Patriots are trading TE Rob Gronkowski and a seventh-round pick to the Buccaneers for a fourth-round pick, source tells ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 21, 2020
Gronkowski is slated to make $9.8 million this season. The veteran tight end has now had a year off from football and has had an opportunity to heal after several seasons of taking beatings with the Patriots.
It’s clear that he wanted to play for Tampa Bay to reunite with Brady and potentially help build a dynasty and win another Super Bowl.
The only question now is where O.J. Howard will end up.
The Buccaneers placed Howard on the trading block a few weeks ago and it’s basically clear now that they’ll be parting ways with the tight end. Howard will make $1.8 million this season and the Bucs were reportedly looking for a second-round pick to trade straight-up for Howard.
It’s unclear at this point if the Bucs will get a second-rounder, but it should be fairly apparent that Tampa Bay will add another pick in the mid-rounds (Round 2-4) to offload Howard. They could potentially take a couple of late-round picks (A Round 5 and 6, or something of that magnitude), as well but they’ll be looking for the highest bidder.
I would be looking for a deal to get done in the relative future and this will give the Buccaneers that needed draft capital they were looking for.
Next. What if the Bucs went WR in the first-round?. dark
Getting an extra second or third round will be the difference in added-depth for this current season and it’s clear that the Bucs are in ‘win-now’ mode, meaning that they will be addressing positions that can help them become competitors right away, rather than building towards the future.