Rob Gronkowski Claims Patriots Considered Franchise-Altering Trade

The Patriots were going to add a tight end during the 2010 NFL Draft one way or the other, Rob Gronkowski says.

Perhaps you’ve heard New England drafted Gronkowski with its second-round pick 15 years ago. Gronkowski only went on to become a five-time Pro Bowler, four-time All-Pro and three-time Super Bowl champion during nine seasons in Foxboro, Mass., after all.

If not for drafting Gronkowski, though, the Patriots apparently had their eyes on another Pro Bowl tight end: then-Chicago Bear Greg Olsen.

“I also heard through a grapevine that if I didn’t get drafted to the New England Patriots, Greg Olsen was going to get traded that day for a draft pick to New England Patriots,” Gronkowski said on the “Dudes On Dudes” podcast. “Because the Patriots were looking for a tight end.”

Gronkowski also offered a firsthand account of how he landed with the Patriots, who drafted Devin McCourty late in the first round with Gronkowski on the board. New England apparently heard the Ravens were interested in the Arizona product and jumped Baltimore at the start of the second round.

“The Baltimore Ravens were going to pick me, I think it was the 25th pick that they had in the (first round of the) draft,” Gronkowski said. “But then Denver and Josh McDaniels came scooping in and traded with the Baltimore Ravens. The Denver Broncos took Tim Tebow and I just got booted out of the first round. The Ravens have the 43rd pick now. Well, then the New England Patriots got a sniff of it and they traded up one spot before the Baltimore Ravens at No. 42 where I got drafted.”

With Gronkowski a surefire Patriots Hall of Famer, the organization’s history would have been altered if his recollection of the 2010 NFL Draft came to fruition.