2020 Rob Gronkowski Fantasy Football Player Profile

Rob Gronkowski Tampa Bay Buccaneers

As we gear up to the start of the NFL season, Football Absurdity is going to bring you a comprehensive breakdown of every notable player that will be available in fantasy football drafts. Rob Gronkowski came out of retirement for one last ride with Thomas Brady, in Tampa Bay. Should we dust off our Gronks at the draft or leave them for someone else as he takes his one last run through the NFL?

Rob Gronkowski ADP and AAV:

Standard ADP: TE8, 85 overall
PPR ADP: TE8, 75 overall
Average Auction Value: $4

Rob Gronkowski Statistics:
Year 2019 2018 2017
G N/A 13 14
GS N/A 11 14
Tgt N/A 72 105
Rec N/A 47 69
Yards N/A 682 1084
TD N/A 3 8
Tgt/G N/A 5.5 7.5
Rec/G N/A 3.62 4.93
Rec% N/A 52.5 77.4
Yds/Tgt N/A 9.47 10.32
Yds/Rec N/A 9.472 10.324
Rob Gronkowski Overview:

One of the big bugaboos about Rob Gronkowski is his injury history. I was ready to tell you that his “Rob Gronkowski doesn’t play sixteen games” was more a trope based on the Patriots not playing players in week seventeen to rest for the playoffs. Unfortunately, this kept Gronk from playing a full season just once (2014). Other than that, Gronk has sixteen games started on his ledger in 2010 and 2011.

That’s… not great. It’s especially bad, given that Rob Gronkowski retired at age 29 due to chronic back problems. And by “chronic back problems” I mean that Gronk missed his entire junior year in college and missed time in four seasons and literally retired because of these chronic back issues. Man, I have chronic back issues and Gronk I feel your pain. I’m also not trying to come out of retirement for one last run after missing some or all of several seasons. All told, when you total the games Gronkowski missed with back injuries and his retirement, it’s cost him enough games to total three entire seasons since 2009. That’s three whole seasons missed with back problems and three times he’s been healthy enough to play the entire season.

That having been said, my one hesitation with not taking Gronk is that Brady hand-picked him to come out of retirement. He could easily have been brought back with the promise of breaking the single-season tight end touchdown record. It’s the only thing that gives me pause with regards to completely punting on Gronkowski in 2020, but that’s not enough for me to go out of my way to get Gronk onto my roster.

Rob Gronkowski Draft Strategy:

Rob Gronkowski Auction Value: $0
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet! (coming late June)

I can’t figure out a situation where I want to spend multiple American fantasy football auction dollars on Rob Gronkowski. He missed multiple games due to injury in each of the last three seasons he played, and medically retired last year due to his injuries. I’m not jumping back in on that train for multiple dollars in an auction or in the single-digit rounds in snake drafts. Given his AAV and ADP, I am fully out on Rob Gronkowski for 2020.

Best Case Scenario:

The year off did Gronk a huge deal of good and he’s the old Rob Gronkowski we know and love (1,100 yards and double-digit touchdowns).

Worst Case Scenario:

He un-retires from WWE to reclaim the belt that he lost when he had to retire from wrestling to un-retire from the NFL.

[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com and airyards.com]

About Jeff Krisko

You can follow me on twitter, @jeffkrisko for the same lukewarm takes you read here.

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