Rob Gronkowski

Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski said after Sunday's loss to the Los Angeles Rams that he will take some time to make a decision on his future.

But on Monday, Gronkowski appears to be open to returning next season. He posted a thank-you message on Twitter and ended it with "Year 12???"

Los Angeles eliminated Tampa Bay from the playoffs on a last-second 30-yard field goal by Matt Gay as time expired. The Buccaneers had trailed 27-3 before mounting an impressive second-half comeback.

Gronkowski finished with four catches for 85 yards. He was in good spirits Monday and summed up his 11th season by writing, "What a ride it's been. Grateful to the Bucs for giving me an opportunity to play another year. To my teammates, thank you for giving everything you had. The sweat we shed and memories made will never be forgotten. Thanks to the #Krewe too."

Gronkowski recorded 55 receptions for 802 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games. He missed time because of fractured ribs and a punctured lung. Still, his 89 targets ranked third on the team. It was his first time topping 800 receiving yards since the 2017 season with the New England Patriots.

Tampa Bay will also be awaiting a decision from quarterback Tom Brady this offseason. The 44-year-old has been noncommittal about playing next season and will take some time to assess his future, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington.

Gronkowski said Monday that his decision will not be tied to Brady's and he will focus on himself.

"I'm really going to basically do what's best for myself in terms of the football world," Gronkowski told reporters. "It's going to be a decision based upon of where I'm at in a couple weeks."

While many across football are focusing on Tom Brady's decision on retirement, Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammate Rob Gronkowski will make his own call independent on what his quarterback does.

"I’m really going to basically do what’s best for myself in terms of the football world," Gronkowski told reporters Monday. "It's going to be a decision based upon of where I’m at in a couple weeks."

The Buccaneers' attempt to defend their Super Bowl title ended on Sunday with a 30-27 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. 

Brady has reportedly been noncommittal about playing next season and planned to take time after the season ended to make his decision, ESPN's Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington reported.

"I haven't put a lot of thought into it," the 44-year-old said of retirement after Sunday's loss. "Taking it day by day."

Gronkowski could have a similarly tough decision having already retired once in 2019.

The 32-year-old played his first nine seasons with Brady for the New England Patriots before stepping away after winning the Super Bowl following the 2018 season. When Brady went to Tampa Bay, Gronkowski returned to the sport and helped a new team win a Super Bowl. 

Though he stayed healthy and played all 16 games in 2020, the tight end missed five games this year, including about a month with a significant rib injury that he compared to getting shot.

Gronkowski was dominant when on the field with 55 catches for 802 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games, but the physical toll and a disappointing playoff exit could be enough to send him back to retirement.     

Fantasy managers are going to be hurting after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers saw stars Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Leonard Fournette all leave Sunday night's game versus the New Orleans Saints because of injuries.

Expectations are always high for Evans, who has had at least 1,000 yards receiving in each of his first seven seasons in the NFL. His yardage total was down a bit in 2020 (1,006, the second-fewest of his career), but he more than made up for it in the red zone with 13 touchdowns. The 28-year-old is still Tom Brady's favorite red-zone target, though his potential absence could open up more opportunities for Rob Gronkowski.

After Sunday's injuries, a lot of focus will likely turn to Gronkowski, Antonio Brown—who was suspended for having a fake vaccination card but will rejoin the team Monday—and Ronald Jones II.

Brown is thriving in his first full season in Tampa. He leads the team with 83.6 receiving yards per game and is being targeted 8.2 times per contest. The seven-time Pro Bowler did miss games against the Chicago Bears and Saints with an ankle injury to go along with his three-game suspension.

Of note, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported Sunday that Brown is "ready to go" in regard to his ankle injury.

Injuries have already hit Gronkowski this season. The four-time All-Pro suffered four cracked ribs, one broken rib and a punctured lung on a hit in the Bucs' 34-24 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3. He missed the next four games and attempted to play against the Saints in Week 8, but the Bucs removed him after he played just six snaps.

As long as Gronkowski can stay on the field, he will have fantasy value. The 32-year-old caught 16 passes for 184 yards and four touchdowns in the first three games of the season before his injury.

While Brown is an obvious WR2 if either of Evans or Godwin are absent—and a WR1 if both miss time—and Gronk should be started if he's healthy, Jones is a bigger question mark. He's become the clear backup in Tampa behind Fournette but has shown in the past he could have some value in a starting role, rushing for 724 yards and six scores in 2019 and 978 yards and seven touchdowns last year.

Consider him a flex with RB2 upside in the right matchups so long as Fournette is out.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski has his sights set on breaking Tony Gonzalez's record of most career 100-yard games by a tight end in NFL history.

With a seven-catch, 123-yard performance in last week's 38-31 win over the Indianapolis Colts, Gronk had his 30th career game with 100 or more yards, putting him only one away from tying Gonzalez's record of 31.

According to NFL.com's Jelani Scott, Gronk said the following about potentially breaking the record during an appearance on NFL Network:

"Let me tell you, I'm trying to break that record. I mean, why wouldn't I try to break that record? I'm coming for it. Tony, I'm coming for it. Basically, you got every record, so I'm coming for this one and it's a pretty cool one, too, for sure. It just shows that I guess you're a baller and Tony's a baller."

Given all he accomplished during his 17-year NFL career with the Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons, Gonzalez is widely regarded as the greatest tight end in NFL history.

Gonzalez ranks third all time in receptions with 1,325, sixth in receiving yardage with 15,127 yards and eighth in receiving touchdowns with 111. He is first among tight ends in both receptions and receiving yardage and second only to Antonio Gates (116) in receiving touchdowns.

Gronk will be hard pressed to pass Gonzalez in receptions (595) or receiving yardage (8,862), but he does have 90 touchdown receptions and a huge advantage over Gonzalez in terms of playoff success, as he has won four Super Bowls with Tom Brady as his quarterback, first with the New England Patriots and then with the Bucs.

There is a good chance Gronk would already own the NFL record for 100-yard receiving games by a tight end if he didn't retire and sit out the 2019 season before returning, but he is trending in the right direction regardless.

Despite missing time due to injury this season, Gronk has been productive with 29 receptions for 378 yards and four touchdowns in just six games.

Gronkowski's first chance to match Gonzalez's record will come Sunday when the Buccaneers face one of latter's former teams in the Falcons.

Good news, Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans. 

It's officially "go time" for Rob Gronkowski.

The five-time Pro Bowler had his best game of the season yardage-wise during Sunday's 38-31 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. He tallied seven catches for 123 yards while running over defenders and finding open seams across the middle in an impressive performance that was all the more notable because it was his second game back from injury.

"I feel good," Gronkowski told Bleacher Report in an exclusive interview. "I've got two games under my belt. I've got a couple practices under my belt. I feel good. There's no excuses with how I'm feeling. It's go time when I step out on the field. No matter what percent you are, when you're on the field, you've got to just be 100 percent go for those plays."

This season has been something of a roller coaster from an individual perspective.

While it was fair to wonder about his level of production coming into the campaign since he is 32 years old and playing in an offense with an overwhelming number of weapons with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Antonio Brown and Leonard Fournette, he found immediate success with two touchdowns in each of the first two games against the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons.

However, Gronkowski suffered four cracked ribs, one broken rib and a punctured lung during the third game against the Los Angeles Rams and then exited with back spasms when he returned in Week 8 against the New Orleans Saints.

Yet he was his dominant self once again during the win over the Colts, which he attributed partly to his preparedness even in a loaded offense.

"Some weeks I can be feeling great and running around great, but the coverages just don't go my way and someone else can have a great game," Gronkowski said. "You never know who's going to make all the plays. Someone may get all the touchdowns that week, and someone may get all the yardage that week. But you've always just got to be ready to perform because you never know when the ball is going to come your way. This week it just so happened to be myself."

Of course, it isn't much of a surprise when the ball just so happens to find arguably the greatest tight end in NFL history.

Gronkowski's resume includes four Super Bowl titles, four All-Pro selections, five Pro Bowl nods, four seasons with more than 1,000 receiving yards and five seasons with double-digit touchdown catches, including when he led the league with 17 in 2011.

A common denominator for much of the success is Tom Brady, who had the future Hall of Fame tight end as a go-to weapon for three of his six Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots as they helped build a modern-day dynasty the likes of which the league has never seen.

Gronkowski retired after the pair's third championship together during the 2018 campaign only to come back in 2020 to join Brady again and win another with the Buccaneers.

"He's a guy you trust in any situation, from the beginning of the game to the end of the game to the final seconds," he said of Brady as they gear up for another potential run at the Lombardi Trophy. "He's a guy you put your full go on the line for. That's why we're all in it, to help each other out and help the man next to us. Having him in the huddle definitely gets you to that level of bringing your A-game every time you step out on the field."

It was clear Brady trusted Gronkowski in the biggest situations as well considering he turned to his reliable tight end for two touchdown catches in the Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

They will face the team they defeated in Super Bowl LI when they take the field Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, but the game won't be the only thing that takes center stage.

Gronkowski will participate in the NFL's My Cause My Cleats program that allows players to advocate for causes on their custom-designed cleats. He partnered with USAA to honor both the USO and his Gronk Nation Youth Foundation with his cleats that will feature a picture of the Jasen family, which is a military family he had the opportunity to meet earlier this year.

"It's important to me to use the My Cause My Cleats platform because I want to share all the great work the USO does to support our military families and how it's important for us to support our military families and veterans," Gronkowski said while also stressing his desire to honor the military because "they give us the freedom that we have in this country."

Marcus Rivero, who is better known as Soles by Sir, designed the cleats that will also have pictures of the USO and Gronk Nation Youth Foundation logos with a camouflage background.

"My man, Marcus Rivero, he actually designed my cleats and painted them," Gronkowski said while pointing out his size 16 made it easier to fit multiple causes on the shoes. "It's pretty impressive the amount of time and work that goes into the design and how much detail there is. It's pretty crazy that they can even draw those types of designs on the cleats and paint them like that."

The Gronk Nation Youth Foundation strives to help children in sports, education, fitness and their communities through grants, appearances and the utilization of nonprofit organizations.

His cleats will raise awareness for notable causes off the field, but his attention remains on another Super Bowl pursuit with the 8-3 Buccaneers on it.

Being a defending champion is nothing new for Gronkowski, and he knows that means getting the opponent's best shot on a weekly basis as the season enters the stretch run.

"There's always a target on our back, especially winning it all last year," he said. "I feel like we get everyone's A-game week in and week out. So we've just got to be prepared and find a way every single week to step it up a notch. Win or lose, you've got to find ways to get better daily. You're not going to see huge jumps of getting better during the season, but week in and week out you've got to find ways to make that little jump and make that little improvement to keep getting better throughout the year."

Winning back-to-back titles is about the only thing he didn't do during his time with the Patriots even though they reached three consecutive Super Bowls and won two of them from 2016 to 2018.

If he plays like he did Sunday and Tampa Bay continues to make those small improvements on a weekly basis, Gronkowski could be primed to change that this season.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski is active for Monday night's game against the New York Giants after missing last week with a rib injury.

The news comes as no surprise, as ESPN's Adam Schefter reported earlier Monday that Gronkowski was expected to play as long as there were no pregame setbacks.

Gronkowski has appeared in just four games this season due to rib and back injuries.

The 32-year-old missed more than a month after suffering cracked ribs in Week 3. He returned in Week 8 only to leave in the first quarter because of back spasms.

After missing last week's loss against the Washington Football Team, Gronkowski returned to the practice field on Thursday and Friday.

"It's going well now out here. Just did two practices in a row. The arrow is pointing up to play this week, and hopefully it's a go," he told reporters on Friday.

The four-time All-Pro tight end was off to an incredible start before his injuries, scoring four touchdowns in his first two games. He had 16 catches for 184 yards through the first three weeks.

Unfortunately, Gronkowski has played just six snaps since September, per Pro Football Reference.

The veteran's return could be huge for Tampa Bay, which has suffered two successive losses to fall to 6-3 on the season. Even with other elite options like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin in the passing attack, Gronkowski is a reliable presence in the middle of the field and is especially dangerous near the end zone.

His chemistry with Tom Brady also goes back to 2010, giving the quarterback a significant boost when he's in the lineup:

Gronkowski's return should make the Buccaneers offense an even tougher one to defend going forward.