The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Life without Gronk is quieter for Pats
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Super Bowl champion New England Patriots are back at work, and things are already a lot quieter.
Rob Gronkowski has retired, and the locker room is a more serious place without the funloving tight end who once declared himself the life of the party — in garbled Spanish, no less.
“There’s only one Gronk,” running back James White said on Wednesday, when the Patriots reported for training camp. “You can’t replace that personality. He’s a great football player, but you’ve got to play with who’s out here.”
A fourtime AllPro who was too fast for linebackers to cover and too big for defensive backs to bring down, the 6foot6, 265pound Gronkowski caught 521 passes for 7,861 yards and 79 touchdowns in an injuryplagued nineyear career. He helped the Patriots reach the Super Bowl five times, winning three rings.
But he was also a largerthanlife personality known for emphatically spiking the ball after a touchdown catch; he once tried to do the same with an opponent, explaining after drawing a penalty “I took him and threw him out of the club.”
Gronk’s offseason partying — thrice starting with the Super Bowl postgame events — was a staple of social media, and he once announced in the locker room after a win: “Yo soy Fiesta!”
“Rob was oneofakind, obviously, on the field, with what he’s able to do as a player. We see that each and every week over the last nine years,” special teams captain Matthew Slater said.
“His funloving spirit and personality, and his childlike joy that he brought each and every day to the workplace. His humility — just a genuine human being — certainly, those things are hard to come by in today’s time, so we’ll miss that.”
But Gronkowski last played a full, 16game season in 2011, with injuries to his back, knee, ankle and arm limiting his ability to stay on the field. He hinted at retirement after the 2017 season, and then made it official this March — a few months shy of his 30th birthday — saying on Instagram “it’s time to move forward and move forward with a big smile.”
“That’s the thing in football — the one thing that’s consistent is change,” defensive back Devin McCourty said. “He looks like he’s having an awesome time on Instagram. I’m really happy for him being able to have a great career and leave the game on your own terms. We’ll see how it works out for us.”
A secondround draft pick in 2010, Gronkowski caught just 47 passes for 682 yards and three touchdowns last season. (He added six catches for 87 yards in the 133 Super Bowl victory over the Rams, including two receptions on New England’s only touchdown drive.)
His 12 career playoff touchdown receptions and 81 postseason catches are the most by a tight end in NFL history. His 79 career TD catches are third most for a tight end.
Without him, the Patriots have brought in Matt LaCosse from the Denver Broncos as well as Benjamin Watson, who started his career in New England in 2004 before bouncing around the league. (Watson will miss the first four games of the season for violating the league’s policy on performanceenhancing drugs.)
But there’s also a lingering doubt that Gronkowski is gone for good.
“He’ll do what’s best for him, but anybody that comes in this locker room is always welcomed with open arms,” McCourty said, throwing in a dig at his twin brother, Jason. “We accept all guys. We took my brother in last year. He struggled for nine years in the NFL, so you talk about a guy like Gronk coming back, I think that’ll be a lot easier.”
Devin McCourty had also gone into the offseason unsure if he would return.
“I’m still here, huh,” he said on Wednesday. “The fun hasn’t stopped so I won’t stop either.”
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The New York Jets are setting up camp without their top rookie.
Defensive lineman Quinnen Williams, the No. 3 overall pick in April, remained unsigned Wednesday morning and was not among the players who arrived at the team’s training facility to report for training camp.
“This is part of the end of the draft process,” coach Adam Gase said. “When he’s ready, he’s ready. When they’re ready to get it done, whenever that happens, it happens. We’ll coach the guys that are here.”
Williams is slotted to receive a fouryear contract worth $32.6 million fully guaranteed, with a fifthyear team option. The sticking point appears to be the schedule of how the former Alabama star’s signing bonus — about $21.7 million — will be paid.
According to published reports, Williams would like to receive the entire sum by the end of the year, while the team and new general manager Joe Douglas are looking to defer some of it until next year.
The sides could still reach an agreement before the Jets hold their first camp practice Thursday morning. For now, though, Williams is the only Jets player to not report.
“When he gets here, he gets here,” Gase said.
So, when would it be a concern if Williams isn’t signed?
“The playoffs,” Gase joked while managing a straight face.
The Jets were in a similar situation last year — albeit with a different coach and general manager in charge— when quarterback Sam Darnold sat out the first three days of camp practices before signing his rookie deal.
“It’s nothing that you deal with personally,” Darnold said. “Your agents are really trying to figure it out and really the whole agency is trying to figure it out. So, for me, it was really about staying patient, knowing exactly what needed to get done and really staying patient with it.”
Darnold, who won the starting job over Josh McCown last summer, didn’t think missing a little time on the field at the beginning of camp affected him.
“Really, at the end of the day, those few practices — really, a couple of practices — I did miss, I don’t know how much of an impact that had on the season,” Darnold said.
Williams was limited during minicamp last month with a calf issue, but he is expected to have a major role — perhaps even as a starter — in coordinator Gregg Williams’ defense this season when he rejoins his Jets teammates.
“When he gets in, man, he’s going to be rockin’ and rollin’,” nose tackle Steve McLendon said. “He’s going to be ready. And the reason why he’s going to be ready is not just me, it’s the coaching staff and the other fellas in the locker room, we’re going to put everything on him, help him and give him all the answers to the tests because we know we’re going to need him this year to play.”
NOTES: Gase said all the players who reported Wednesday are healthy and ready to participate fully in practice. S Marcus Maye (shoulder/thumb) and S
Brandon Bryant (foot) were placed on the physically unable to perform list Monday, while rookie CB
Bless Austin (knee) is on the nonfootball injury list. … Former Steelers star WR
Hines Ward is one of the team’s four interns in camp as part of the Bill Walsh minority coaching fellowship. He joins former Jets WR David Clowney, currently the WRs and TEs coach and cocoordinator at Howard University; Stephen BravoBrown, Missouri State’s assistant WRs coach; and Bowie State head coach Damon Reginald Wilson. Former Jets left
tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson and linebacker
Calvin Pace will serve as the team’s two NunnWooten Scouting Fellowship participants as part of the NFL’s Football Development program.… The Jets signed TE Temuchin Hodges — formerly known as Bucky Hodges — to add depth to the position. He was cut by New York early in training camp and then spent time with Pittsburgh. Hodges also has been with Minnesota and Carolina.