Giardi: The 25 best Patriots of the last 25 years - Who is #2?

We are almost there. The list of the 25 best Patriots over the last 25 years has now reached the penultimate player. I put his name in pen when I first started to collect the no-brainers, wrote a #2 next to his name, and never once thought about changing it. 

2. Rob Gronkowski: At his peak, Gronkowski was as good at his job as anyone in football, and that includes the man who will be number one on this list (I wonder who that will be?). He was a first-team All-Pro four times over a seven-year period, and it would have almost certainly been more had injuries not sidelined him a couple of times. Then again, had Gronkowski not entered the league with questions about his back, he never would have made it to the Patriots in the second round. That they still picked him after he showed up for a top 30 visit in shambles -  he fell asleep on the floor between meetings - was proof the organization foresaw an impactful player. But I’m not sure they even knew how great Gronkowski would be. 

“It wasn’t a great visit, but I think that’s - look, you know how it is traveling around cross-country going from one team to the next, getting MRIs and back x-rays, or whatever. I am sure it got to him," Bill Belichick recalled. “The energy that Rob has as a football player is - I would say - at a very high level. Maybe not a (Tedy) Bruschi, but it is up there. It’s pretty high and we didn’t see it. 

“In the end, once we got him here and once he got in the field, Rob was great. He was great. He had a great career here, but he was a great teammate. Everybody loved him and not because of his (personality) and all that, but just the way he competed and the type of teammate he was. Sometimes the first impression is not always the right one.”

Gronkowski’s rookie campaign was damn good - 42 catches and 10 scores - but year two may have been the best season by a tight end in history. He reeled in 90 passes for 1,327 yards and 17 touchdowns (and added another rushing touchdown). There have been players that have surpassed one or two of those numbers, but with the exception of San Fran’s George Kittle, none of the others blocked worth a damn (I’m looking at you Travis Kelce, Tony Gonzalez and Jimmy Graham).

"Robbie G was amazing for a lot of reasons, probably one of the most underrated things he did - which I don't think was underrated - he's the greatest blocking tight end to ever play," Tom Brady said. "He manhandled guys who were bigger than him, and he outran guys who were smaller than him. He was a matchup nightmare."

Brady had a soft spot for Gronkowski, but a) no lies were detected in that proclamation and b) their connection was magical. Only Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison hooked up for more touchdowns than TB12 and his man-child tight end. Gronkowski dictated matchups in a way no tight end could because of his ability to be isolated one-on-one outside the numbers or have his hand in the dirt and torture safeties or outrun linebackers.

"Imagine trying to cover that," Brady said. "He just gets great body position, and I think that's a big part of it because he's such a big guy, it's hard to go through him. He's 6-7, 260 pounds, so if he can get himself in the right position and get the defender where he wants him in the right place in the route, the defender can't do anything about it. And I think they know that, too, so then they panic, and then when they panic, it's even more of an advantage to the offense. 

“Sometimes when you get a bigger receiver on the perimeter and a smaller [defensive back] is matched up on him, the mindset of the DB might even change because they think, 'Oh my God, this guy is so much bigger and taller and stronger and what am I going to do?' And then they're already beat sometimes before the ball is snapped."

"It's all hands on deck," then Colts Head Coach Chuck Pagano said in 2015. "He is a match-up nightmare. You have to pick and choose and try to change up...unique, unique, unique player."

Five times with the Pats, Gronkowski had 10 or more receiving touchdowns. Four times, he surpassed one thousand yards. At the time of his first retirement (he would return for two seasons in Tampa Bay), he averaged nearly 10 yards per target, almost a yard more than his closest competitor at the time (Kelce). 

Gronkowski was also an elite playoff performer in NE, averaging more yards and touchdowns per game in the second season than he did in the regular season. His score over Seattle’s K.J. Wright in Super Bowl XLIX was a thing of beauty, and Brady went to him in the biggest moment in the SB win over the Rams. That came midway through the 4th quarter, and Gronkowski rewarded his quarterback by making a diving, 29-yard fingertip grab down the seam, setting the Pats up at the 2-yard line. One play later, Sony Michel scored, and another Lombardi Trophy was headed back to Foxborough.

"He knows to trust in me and throw that ball," Gronkowski said, "and I'm going to grab it." Later, he called that reception “one of the biggest” plays of his career.

By that point in his career, Gronkowski didn’t possess the same explosion in his legs. His back remained an issue on and off for much of his NFL career, and he also blew out his knee. That caused him to miss 29 regular-season games. However, when Gronkowski was healthy, he played the game with a childlike joy that was in stark contrast to the way Belichick wanted his players to comport themselves. That held true off the field as well (anyone remember “yo soy fiesta”?) It led to friction between the two men - as did plenty of other stuff (contract, workouts, Bill’s often brutal honesty) but never with his teammates. They knew that when it came time to work, Gronkowski would push himself as hard - or harder - than anyone.

“He was the best tight end I have ever been around,” Bill O’Brien, his offensive coordinator in 2010 and 2011, said. “He was an even better person. He was 6'7", 260 [pounds] with incredible athleticism. But on top of that, he brought a level of toughness to our whole team. He brought great energy to the building every single day. Gronk never had a bad day. He was an awesome guy to coach.”

Beyond the playoff moments already mentioned, there are countless other examples of Gronkowski’s dominance. 

- The 4th & 10 conversion in the 2015 AFC Championship game at Denver.

- A pair of third-down conversions in the 2018 AFC Championship game in Kansas City.

- The one-handed grab vs Denver in a 2014 regular season game.

- When D’Angelo Hall decided to make a “business decision” in a 2011 game at Washington.

- Throwing Sergio Brown “out of the club” in 2014 against the Colts (Jonas Gray game).

- “Beast mode” against the Steelers in 2017. 9 catches. 168 yards. A handful of ridiculous catches.

Gronkowski’s tears at his retirement were moving.

"I want to be clear to my fans,” he said in August of 2019. “I needed to recover. I was not in a good place. Football was bringing me down, and I didn't like it. I was losing that joy in life.”

That he came back a year later to play with Brady in Tampa doesn’t change that. Turns out, a lot of the players who bucked against Belichick’s ways in the late 2010s were right: that the coach’s hard-ass ways grew tired and old and eventually unsuccessful. I guess having all-time greats matters a little more than some on that staff would have you believe.

Last thing on Gronkowski: there may have been no more charitable individual during his time with the Pats. He was the player PR went to when another player flaked out or bailed out on a commitment. The story that always sticks with me is the Pats calling on Gronkowski last minute for a birthday party at a young kid’s house in one of the nearby towns. The boy had cancer. Another player was supposed to go. He didn’t. Gronkowski dropped everything, showed up, and, as you can imagine, made the child’s day - and everyone else he came in contact with. There are no airs with him. Gronkowski is who he is, and we all benefited from that.