3 logical reasons why Rob Gronkowski shouldn't retire from NFL

Rob Gronkowski came out of retirement to play with Tom Brady. After the quarterback's exit from the NFL, the tight end is stuck with a tough choice to make.

Should he retire for the second and final time? Should he continue on and play for another year? Looking at his situation, there are three great reasons why the tight end should stick around, at least for 2022.

Why Rob Gronkowski should stick around

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#1 - Trending up

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The tight end's career can be broken up into several distinct eras. 2010-2013 was a humble era, with the tight end earning well under 1000 yards in three of the four seasons.

The 2014-2017 era was the peak of his career, earning more than 1000 yards in three of the four seasons. From 2017 until today, the tight end is back under 1000 yards in each of the last four seasons (including the missed season).

However, while the tight end's prime is behind him, he started to trend upwards in 2021.

In 2020, he caught 45 passes for 623 yards. In 2021, he caught 55 passes for 802 yards. Why not see if the trend continues?

#2 - In range of moving past an all-time great

According to Statmuse, Gronkowski is only 700 yards behind the total of an all-time great. Shannon Sharpe has 9961 total receiving yards in his career.

Meanwhile, the former Patriots quarterback has 9286 yards. In passing Shannon Sharpe, the tight end would be fourth in career receiving yards.

To pass the next player, Antonio Gates, he would need another 2000 yards on top of the 700, which may be out of reach. That said, he could still pass Sharpe with one more season at his most recent pace.

#3 - Chance to prove he can succeed without Tom Brady

So far, Gronkowski has only played with Tom Brady. He has been stuck to the side of the quarterback. All of his accomplishments are tied to Brady.

Now would be the time for him to try something new and prove that he can succeed without Brady. He has expressed interest in playing with Joe Burrow earlier this year, so perhaps that could be a good landing spot.

Put simply, considering Gronkowski's age at almost 33 years old, he doesn't have time to spend with a rebuild. Wherever he goes needs to be in a Super Bowl window.

At this point, the tight end has enough career accolades where any team would love to have him. The question is, does he want them? Does he even want to play football in 2022?

About the author

Ian brings with him more than 6.5 years of sports writing experience to the Sportskeeda NFL team. He played offensive line in middle school and high school, and also made it to the top 0% matchmaking ranking in MUT play in Madden.

He possesses the quality of identifying unique story angles from quotes in press conferences, social media and interviews. He assimilates facts for his stories with a lawyer-like precision and verifies each and every piece of information.

Ian admires Peyton Manning for his ability to beat teams with his mind despite not being the best athlete, and is also a fan of Tom Brady. The Denver Broncos are his favorite team, and their Super Bowl 50 win in Manning’s last game is etched in his memory forever. Bill Belichick is his all-time favorite coach.

He has also grown to admire the Los Angeles Rams mainly because he and Cooper Kupp went to the same college, Eastern Washington University, with both finishing their college careers at the same time.

In his career so far, Ian has had the privilege of exclusively interviewing Los Angeles Rams General Manager Les Snead, Kwity Paye of the Indianpolis Colts and Cleveland Browns wide receiver Jamari Thrash. When not writing, he likes to play video games and be outdoors.

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Edited by Adam Dickson