Buccaneers: Rob Gronkowski ‘blocking tight end’ debacle

‘Blocking tight end’ is only one way to describe Rob Gronkowski with the Buccaneers.

Rob Gronkowski will go down in history as the best complete tight end ever. His greatest strength has been his ability to catch passes and block at the highest level in the league, not one over the other.

Even after coming off of retirement and some time away from the game, the belief that Gronk would be a blocking tight end in the Buccaneer offense was laughable from the start. Even though he was one of the best tight ends in the league blocking last season, Gronk still showed his hands off too.

While he didn’t have a crazy 1,000-yard season or anything that jumped off the stat sheet, Gronk’s 45 receptions for 623 yards and seven touchdowns during the regular season in the deep Buccaneer offense speaks for itself. Even the best players struggle to get consistent targets on a team like that, yet Gronk was still able to make his presence known.

Rob Gronkowski isn’t finished yet

From day one in this offense, it was clear that Gronk is still far from being at the end of his ability. He may choose to retire early again, but it certainly won’t be from a lack of ability. On a normal team without three All-Pro caliber receivers and consistent tight end depth, Gronk is still a 1,000-yard tight end.

Gronkowski was a force of nature catching passes, but he did still live up to the ‘blocking’ part of his preseason misdiagnosis. The Bucs will have one of the best duos in the league as blockers when O.J. Howard returns from injury, but Gronk will still be the go-to guy catching the ball.

If making a return to the NFL with a new team wasn’t enough to prove to people that Gronk is more than a blocker, the greatest tight end of all time was able to show off his hands even more by setting a world record when he caught a football dropped from a helicopter from 600-feet above the Arizona football field.

Can your blocking tight end do that?

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