A Final Look At Replacing Rob Gronkowski
January 29th, 2023
In early November, head coach Todd Bowles said publicly that he was still looking for Julio Jones to replace a chunk of Hall of Time tight end Rob Gronkowski’s production from the 2021 season.
Bowles also went there when Julio arrived in late July and, unfortunately, it never really materialized.
The Bucs tried to replace Gronk (55 catches, 802 yards, 6 TDS and 39 first downs) and O.J. Howard (14 catches, 135 yards, 1 TD, 11 FDs) with Julio and rookies Cade Otton and Ko Kieft.
They came up short.
Julio’s biggest plays this season were very un-tight-end-like, and he ended up with 24 catches for 299 yards, 2 TDs, and 13 first downs. Otton had a rookie season filled with growing pains but produced in the passing game with 42 catches for 391 yards and 2 TDs. He had 19 first-down grabs and caught 64 percent of the balls thrown his way; Gronk hauled in 61 percent last season.
Joe doesn’t expect Julio back next season, and Joe really is looking forward to the Bucs hiring an experienced tight ends coach to develop Otton and Ko Kieft. If both those guys can take a sophomore step forward, that would go a long way toward improving the tight end blocking that arguably was Gronk’s most valuable asset.
Frankly, Joe could see the Bucs drafting yet another tight end this year.
They could use more special teams help and, if a young quarterback gets the ball this year or next, quality tight end options become more important.
Former Bucs QB Josh Freeman never would have had his breakthrough season of 2010 without tight end Kellen Winslow getting 98 passes thrown his way (66 catches) and being one of the more reliable targets in the league that season.
January 29th, 2023 at 8:50 pm
SB~LV that was some great QB play. Brady should be ashamed if himself.
January 29th, 2023 at 8:52 pm
I hate the eagles and I hate Kansas City
January 29th, 2023 at 8:54 pm
Gronk was a truly special player. He was a great blocking TE as well as a great target with good hands and a big body that made him a wonderful possession receiver. Not many TE’s combine those skills and certainly none as well as Gronk.
We could waste another ten years hoping we’ll find another HOF TE.
The solution is at hand. Kieft blocks as well as Gronk…Otton shows promise as a receiver. Put BOTH of them together and you at least can fill the positions that Gronk could do all by himself.
I look forward to Otton’s development as well as Kieft. There is a lot of potential there and the hope that while they’ll never equal Gronk the two of them together can replace him.
January 29th, 2023 at 8:57 pm
I would hate to see another pick used on. TE. It wouldn’t surprise me of Licht wasted another high pick on one when we could just sign a free agent. Use the first pick to take a LT and send Donny Smith packing. Saves his $15 m salary less dead cap money.
January 29th, 2023 at 9:00 pm
pas rush pass rush pass rush
January 29th, 2023 at 9:21 pm
A Tight End who can block and can get vertical as an effective receiver too????
……now that’s a rare commodity in the NFL….very rare, that’s what made Gronk so special.
Tony Gonzalez was special like that too.
January 29th, 2023 at 9:22 pm
We’ll Joe we only have a hole at almost every position and limited depth so if Brady comes back we’ll be all set with an offensive coordinator (supposedly)… oh and did I mention no cap space lmaoooo but we’re fine we’ll just rely on a lil Brady magic and oc to work crazy well it’ll be fine all is well
January 29th, 2023 at 9:28 pm
They drafted two TEs in a really bad tight end draft. It was a major problem all year. The couldn’t stretch the middle. Btw wtf is going on with the officiating? It’s sad. KC gets another play because it didn’t happen? I’m so confused right now, I’m going to bed.
January 29th, 2023 at 9:32 pm
With Brady or without, Bucs have gotta beef up both lines.
January 29th, 2023 at 9:43 pm
Otton showed a lot. He’s going to be good but he’s not going to be Gronk or Kelce. Ko IDK, he did not show much. The problem is you can’t have a blocking tight end and receiving tighten. Your TEs need to be able to do both otherwise you’re just advertising 90% of your plays.
January 29th, 2023 at 9:50 pm
Julio was the biggest big time free agent disappointment for the Bucs in years.
January 29th, 2023 at 10:00 pm
Looks like the refs want KC in the SB
January 29th, 2023 at 10:06 pm
Hard to beat the refs.
January 29th, 2023 at 10:08 pm
Hard to beat your own stupidity.
January 29th, 2023 at 10:09 pm
Well, I get the call. It was stupid of him to touch Mahomes and you have to know he’s the NFL Golden Child. I feel for the Ossai though. It’s just instinct and a touchy call. That’s today’s NFL. I can deal with all that. The thing I have a problem is classless CBS continuing to show Ossai. The dude terrorized Mahomes but cost his team the game. Do you have to keep showing the guy as he’s devastated. It’s distateful. One quick glance. Guy is dejected. Fine. But leave him alone after that. Really feel for the guy.
January 29th, 2023 at 10:12 pm
There was no reason to give him an extra shove
Stupid.
Refs are awful this game.
Hicks, Gage, Jones…all massive busts by Jason Licht.
January 29th, 2023 at 10:12 pm
Two games today, both decided by the refs.
The NFL is becoming soccer with all the flops, and the NBA with the rigged games.
January 29th, 2023 at 10:13 pm
Yeah, refs didn’t do that, dude was dumb
January 29th, 2023 at 10:13 pm
SF fans screaming for Brady….
January 29th, 2023 at 10:15 pm
Munch. Every game you watch is decided by the refs. Nothing new.
January 29th, 2023 at 10:24 pm
DBS – yeah, that’s how ‘rigged’ works, dummy.
January 29th, 2023 at 10:25 pm
One of dem GA TE’s would be nice
January 29th, 2023 at 10:26 pm
The Bucs better put a full court press on Kellen Moore to be the new OC. It’s not every day that one of the top offensive teams fires their OC. He stands out above the rest. Brady might even want to play for us again if we get him
January 29th, 2023 at 10:32 pm
If I am a top OC candidate…I want a decent QB and running game at bare minimum. I’m not going to the Bucs garbage fest with Licht shopping in the Walmart bargain bins.
January 29th, 2023 at 10:44 pm
Gronks coming back.
January 29th, 2023 at 11:08 pm
Blowes is an abject cretin as a head coach.
January 29th, 2023 at 11:18 pm
All of these personnel failures fall directly on Jason Licht.
January 29th, 2023 at 11:38 pm
I’m happy for Suh that he is going to another super bowl. I wonder who let him go.
January 30th, 2023 at 12:36 am
Gronk is never coming back.
Otton shows promise. He seemed to improve as the year wore on.
January 30th, 2023 at 1:06 am
Bonzai – I agree, in that I doubt Gronk would come back, but I certainly wouldn’t let Otton determine that. If Otton plays a ton, then you give Gronk some rest until you really need him, and this offense easily supports two TEs in any case.
January 30th, 2023 at 2:39 am
This article fails to mention that KYLE RUDOLPH was supposed to replace a lot of what Gronk did. The Rudolph signing was a major bust, poor vetting by the Bucs.
There are numerous other veteran TEs in free agency they should have considered instead.
Brate was expected to step up, too, and he didn’t.
Attempting to use the draft was a partial fail as well. The goal is one TE who can, hello, catch as well as block. One. So instead the spend two picks for Otton, who is a smaller (compared to Gronk) go-type, and Kieft, who is a good blocker, neither of whom were instant impact on the scale needed. Otton will be okay, but never Gronk. I was hoping Kieft would surprise with good receiving, and he showed flashes of it.
The position is a mess, when you do not have a legit top caliber TE who can catch and block. Both in one is essential, to keep defenses honest. Period.
January 30th, 2023 at 5:52 am
Gronk’s not coming back, at least to the Bucs. He’s just waiting for Brady to start his Fox gig, and he’ll be his sidekick on Day 1.
Otton & Kieft are keepers (for different reasons), but Brate has to go because of lack of production (Rudolph was a 1-year rental so he’s gone & won’t be back). Cam is due to be paid $5.0 mil this year and carries a $3.0 Dead CAP (sadly we need to eat that and move on).
There are TONS of free agent TEs on the market this year. Surely we can find ONE for a reasonable price who (1) knows how to block; AND (2) represents a real threat catching the ball, especially in the middle of the field. IF we do end up drafting a TE, it’ll be late (most likely with one of our 7th Rnd picks) and he probably won’t represent much of a threat for at least a year or 2 (hopefully though he’s a big puppy who knows how to run over people when he blocks).
January 30th, 2023 at 6:00 am
“Your TEs need to be able to do both otherwise you’re just advertising 90% of your plays.”
Unless they are BOTH on the field at the same time!
OR imagine this…Kieft is on the field and DC’s plan for him to block and he releases as a target. He was only targeted 10X last year, caught 7…not a bad % he averaged 11.4 yards on those catches with a longest of 19 that obviously pumped up that average along with a TD.
My point is Otton and Kieft bring different skill sets but if DC’s sit on a package predicated on Kieft blocking for example, he can make them pay. He’s not fast but his hands are pretty good.
January 30th, 2023 at 7:18 am
The reffing in KC game was a joke. The late it legit. Stupid arse, now sit with that all off season.
January 30th, 2023 at 8:02 am
I wouldn’t be opposed to drafting a good TE in the first 3 rounds……but we need a replacement for LVD & Dean or SMB also…..so.
LB, CB, TE……..
January 30th, 2023 at 9:15 am
TBBF … I’m with you on the high draft of replacements for LVD and either Dean or SMB, but even more importantly we need 2 other things to make this defense work:
1 – A beastly DT to pair with Vea (preferably one who can give us more than 50% snaps each season).
2 – A beastly DE/OLB who can actually rush the QB & put him on the ground.
JTS & Hall are at best ‘OK’ but we need at least 1 beast to make our DLine pass rush work. Blitzing White as much as we do hampers our pass defense, and Shaq may or may not make it back to 100% (hey, he is 30 now).
Hicks, Gholston & RNR are all FAs right now, but I suspect we’ll re-sign Gholston & RNR on 1-year contracts. Hicks is 33 now & we need to move on from that experiment by either drafting his replacement high or signing a quality FA to replace him.
Any draft pick lower than Rnd 4 is iffy IMO, and we shouldn’t have high expectations there. We don’t have a Rnd 4 pick this year, so I’d personally count on 3 picks having a reasonable impact as either starters or (more likely) key rotational players.
My draft preferences would be ILB, then DE/OLB, then DT but it really depends on who’s available when we pick.
January 30th, 2023 at 9:56 am
wasn’t Brate in that mix too?
January 30th, 2023 at 11:37 am
Yeah Deano. No interest in the SB for me this year, at all. Will probably have my eyes elsewhere.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:48 pm
For the record I was right that Julio was not a good signing. Maybe he’ll rebound next year with more time away from his injury, but we can’t count on that