Rob Gronkowski knows a thing or two about playing with great Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterbacks.
Gronkowski was a member of the Buccaneers when they won their latest Super Bowl during the 2020 season with Brady. During Gronkowski's 11-season career, he played every one of those years with the G.O.A.T.
Fast forward to now, and the Buccaneers have a star franchise quarterback in Baker Mayfield, but he has struggled through the first three games of the season. The Buccaneers are 0-3 and will now be without Mayfield for at least three weeks due to a thumb injury.
The timing couldn't have been worse, considering it came right after Mayfield inked a $55 million-a-year deal worth $165 million over three years.
Gronkowski said Mayfield still has the talent
and all the tools, but he's trying to overextend on plays, a point his former head coach, Bruce Arians, has also made. Mayfield actually suffered his thumb injury on a play in which he tried to overextend towards the end of the loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
"Yeah, definitely," said Gronkowski of Mayfield trying to overextend plays. "He just needs to go down, throw it away, get tackled. He's trying to break too many tackles, but like I said, that's just his personality. That's just how he plays the game of football. But at the quarterback position in the NFL, with everyone being good, sometimes you just need to throw the ball away. You just really do, and just go on to the next play and do what you got to do on the next play."
The Buccaneers will attempt to stay afloat and get their first win when they host the Green Bay Packers in Week 4. They'll do so with undrafted rookie free agent Jalon Daniels at quarterback, who will be making his first career start. Just seven teams in NFL history that started 0-3 have made the playoffs, and just one that started 0-4 has made it.
Buccaneers running back Kenneth Gainwell has high praise for the rookie quarterback.
"Jalon, he's so smart, man," Gainwell said. "We've obviously seen what he can do in the preseason. He's definitely a guy that enjoys coming to work and doing his job. He worked extremely hard during the preseason to try to win the QB two job, and he did just that by going out there showing what he could do on the field in those preseason games. But I don't think everybody understands that the arm talent that he has, his capability of getting out of the pocket and creating big plays, I think yes, he's going to show a lot on what he can really do on Sunday. He's very strong and has a very strong talented arm, and he's super smart. I think he's going to do a very good job."
Gronkowski is keeping busy in his post-NFL career with his analyst work with FOX. But he's also keeping busy in other ways -- he'll be teaming up with eBay Live seller and host PCBHobby at New York Comic Con to tackle the comics, cards, and collectibles hobby. The former Buccaneers tight end will geek out on Marvel-related topics with fans before the theatrical release of Doomsday.
"This is the Gronk Geeks Out series number two," said Gronkowski. "I did the first one at The National with Gronk geeking out, just ripping cards and being on eBay Live. And now we're doing it at New York Comic Con on October 9, and it's going to be a special experience because I don't have much of a background in comics, but I'm learning now. I worked with PCB Hobby from Florida. They taught me a lot about comics, how to grade the books, what comic books are all about."
"I didn't know that the movies were all based off of comics as well, comic books that were written from back in the day, so I'm just learning as we go," Gronkowski continued. "But the experience and and just how fun eBay Live has been, and the experience of being on eBay Live is just a thrill every time. Even if I don't know much of what's going on, I learn as we go, bring the personality to the table, and I'm excited to be on my first Comic Con event as well in New York City."
This article originally appeared on Bucs Wire: Rob Gronkowski on Buccaneers' Baker Mayfield: 'He just needs to go down'
