Gronkowski mulling retirement

[stevegroganfan]

Originally Posted by IUsedToBeATightEnd

Gronk is all sore and maybe retiring, Brady is the shadow of what he used to be and half of the coaching staff is gone. I can see the pats going in "restructure" mode soon. They'll keep going to the playoffs for the next 20 yrs though, due to the division they're in, and facing BB in a playoff game is never easy.
That being said, the Pats dynasty as we know it has come to an end.

There is no way in hell that the AFC East doesn't have another relatively strong team in the next 20 years. This Patriots fan recognizes the Patriots reign over AFC East will come to an end. The only question is whether its Dolphins, Bills or Jets but one of those 3 should make at least one Super Bowl over the next 20 years if not multiple Super Bowls.

Main reason Brady's numbers down this year were.
1) he did have a couple of week slump where he was uncharacteristically off with some of his passing. Blame some of that on age and you may be right. Brady brought in his qb coach and got on track.
2) Edelman suspended 4 games.
3) Gronk is slowing down a bit as a receiver and he was injured a lot this year.
4) no very good outside receiving threat.
5) Brady is happy to hand the ball off to a running back at goal line if that is the best option. Patriots had a good rookie running back score a bunch of TDs.

So Brady should decline next year since he is a year older but his numbers may go up if Patriots get a couple of very good outside threats or an outside threat and a better backup to Edelman and/or Gronk.

BB has such a great reputation that while Patriots may not win another Super Bowl the next 6-7 years especially if BB decides to replace Brady with a veteran QB or gets lucky drafting a replacement, I wouldn't be surprised if the Patriots make playoffs 4 or 5 of them even if another team in AFC East becomes team to beat in the division or even conference. (I am guessing Brady misses playoffs in his last year due to declining performance and/or injuries.) Once you are in the playoffs if you have a competent QB or above and a relatively healthy team, anything can happen in a given year. Odds are stacked in favor of better QBs/better teams but lesser QBs/lesser teams still have a chance.

1985 Patriots are evidence of lesser QBs. Went to Super Bowl with Tony Eason and beat Dan Marino in Miami along the way.