Before I had the chance to speculate what the Patriots would do about the contract situation of their two amazing tight ends, they answered my question. TE Gronkowski was signed to an extension this morning. Details are still unknown, but because of the contract Green Bay gave TE Jermichael Finley this offseason, it is expected to be in the $9-10M range. I will post updates as they are reported.
Update: According to Adam Schefter, the deal is a 6 year extension worth $54M.
Update 2: I misunderstood the length of this deal. Effectively, this is actually an 8 year contract, as it is adding 6 years to the 2 years Gronk still has on his rookie contract. Therefore, this deal is more accurately described as $55.1M/8 year. This averages out to $6.9M/year, which ranks him 5th highest salary of NFL tight ends behind: Vernon Davis, Mercedes Lewis, Tony Gonzalez, and Jermichael Finley.
Source: PFT
Update 3: I added estimates for Gronkowski's new contract, courtesy of spotrac.com, to the salary cap page. In the immediate future, this seems like a win-win for both sides. Gronkowski looked to be criminally underpaid this year before this extension with a salary of $490k. With a signing bonus of $8M he gets money in his pocket now, along with a slight raise for the next two years at around $600k. After that, however, he gets a huge pay bump to about $4M. His salary for the next three years are all guaranteed so he has some insurance should he get injured.
Meanwhile, the Patriots lock-in their most important offensive player not named Tom Brady until nearly the end of the decade. Say what you want about Welker's importance on third down or Hernandez's versatility; no one makes the Patriots' offense run better than Gronk. He is obviously an elite pass catching tight end with his NFL record 1,327 yards on 90 receptions in 2011. He particularly shines in the red zone with his league-leading 17 TD receptions last year. But even more than that, he is a great blocking tight end (run or pass) who isn't afraid to hit someone in the mouth. In the AFC Championship, he blasted the Defensive Player of the Year, Terrell Suggs (right side), and then continued on to his route as if nothing happened. He allows the Patriots to run their offense so much more effectively because they can exploit match ups everywhere. If the defense beefs up to play the run, they split Gronk and Hernandez out wide for a 4 or 5 wide receiver set. If they play in a nickel or a dime, they bring Gronk and Hernandez inside and run it straight up the gut. If they double Gronk with bracket coverage, it allows other players, like Hernandez and Welker to win one-on-one battles. Looking back at the 2011 season, if there was a game where his stats were low, either Welker or Hernandez had explosive games; most notably @Oakland (Welker 9 rec, 158 yard, 1TD) and @Denver (Hernandez 9 rec, 129 yards, 1TD). Fans like to use the word beast a lot when describing a dominant player and it seems cliche, but I honestly don't know what other word describes Gronk better. In the game against the Redskins this past year, he had two of my favorite plays ever. (I apologize for the music, I couldn't find a highlight without any)
On top of all of the statistics that he is known for, Gronkowski also brings something else to the team, and to the locker room specifically. He is a fun-loving guy, in the purest sense. He is a goofball. He is the antithesis to Brady and Belichick, but that is a good thing. Matt Light was known for being a bit of a joker in the locker room too, and both Light and Gronk were seen after the Super Bowl loss dancing around foolishly. They were both able to recognize what an amazing accomplishment it was to even reach the Super Bowl and how lucky their lives have been. He is a player who works hard and earns his respect, but doesn't take life too seriously.
But what did the Patriots give up in this contract? First off, they guaranteed Gronkowski $18M, including the $8M signing bonus, when they currently were not pressed to sign him to an extension. He had two more years, plus he would have been a restricted free agent. Second, Gronkowski has seemed slightly susceptible to injuries. He sat out his junior year at Arizona because of a back injury, and in the AFC Championship game he suffered a high ankle sprain that limited his effectiveness in the Super Bowl and required surgery this offseason. So this contract is not free of risk on the Patriots side.
However, if Gronkowski does stay healthy and continues to perform at this high level, the Patriots will have orchestrated a huge amount of savings for the later part of this deal. If in 2016, they exercise a $10M roster bonus, they will have Rob under contract until he is 31. Over those last four years, his average cap hit will be about $6.5M, which is not to say is a small amount of money, but had he hit the open market that number could easily have been $9-11M. The Vince Wilfork/Richard Seymour situation in 2009 is a stark counter-example to handling his contract this early. The Patriots forced both dominant defensive linemen into playing out contracts they had grossly exceeded. When it came time to re-sign them to larger contracts, they didn't have the space for both and were forced to ship Seymour off to the Raiders. While the Patriots turned the first round pick they got out of that deal into now starting LT Nate Solder, not rewarding both lineman forced them to change the defense from a 3-4 to a 4-3 because they didn't have the personnel to run a 3 man front. Trying to rebuild on the fly has been one of the many reasons why the Patriots' defense has been so porous these past few years. Now they have significantly more leverage over Hernandez when it comes time to re-sign him.
So by investing now, and taking on the risk of an injury, the Patriots are able to get an elite offensive threat for a significantly discounted price in his prime years. In my opinion there are two less quantitative benefits from this contract. First, it keeps Gronkowski and other players in the locker room happy. He was rewarded for his elite play on the field and more importantly his potential to keep performing at that elite level; this is an action the Patriots aren't always known for, see the Welker contract situation. Second, it removes a significant amount of uncertainty about the Patriots offense. They can now draft/sign players that specifically compliment Gronkowski for years to come. As I said, they added leverage to Hernandez's contract talks, and probably Welker's too.
Overall, I am very happy about this extension. I look forward to watching Gronk spike the shit out of the ball every touchdown for years to come. As for what to look forward to, I am working on a post about other possible extensions (i.e. Aaron Hernandez, Patrick Chung, Wes Welker, and Sebastian Vollmer) the Patriots may be working on this offseason taking into account their cap space in 2013 and beyond.
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