Gronk restructured contract

nattysez

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Sep 30, 2010
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Specific details on Rob Gronkowski's new deal with Patriots, per @RosenhausSports:‬

‪1st tier, which gets him to $10.75M either 90 percent play time or 80 catches or 1200 receiving yards or All Pro -- and he's made all pro four times.‬

‪2nd tier to $8.75M: he has to get 80 percent play time or 70 catches or 1000 receiving yards or 12 Tds.‬

‪3rd tier takes him to $6.75M is 70 percent playtime, 60 receptions, 800 receiving yards or 10 TDs.‬

‪But a big new groundbreaking deal for Gronk.‬



For those wondering, Gronk's career #s, starting in 2010:
Catches: 42, 90, 55, 39, 82, 72, 24
Yds receiving: 546, 1327, 790, 592, 1124, 1176, 540

So, basically, he'll get paid if he stays healthy.
 

InstaFace

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Highest AAV for a TE thus far was Jimmy Graham's $10M, who got 4/40 for 2014-2017 and seems likely to play it out. Kelce, Ertz and Jordan Reed have artificially low 2017 cap hits, and are probably candidates for restructuring after 17 or '18, so they're not really the benchmark. If Gronk hits his 1st-tier incentives there, $10.75 will definitely be a new high for TEs, and he'll probably be great value even at those numbers. Get paid a mere 7.5% more than the next guy, in exchange for - if healthy - completely game-altering production on the field.

Gronk's previous contract ran 2014-2019 and was an AAV of $9, but was set to have a big jump in cap hit after 2017. This represents a very slight raise for him, with some downside protection for the team, to keep him under Belichick's control for, presumably, more years.

Good for all sides, sounds like.
 

nattysez

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I wonder if this frees up any money from the later years of his deal. His original cap numbers (per PatsCap) were 2017 = 6.75M 2018=11M 2019=12M.
 

Ale Xander

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Even with the new deal, he seems underpaid.

"giving him chance to become highest paid TE in NFL"

He should be the highest paid TE no questions asked.

I'm honestly surprised Rosenhaus didn't get him more. I guess Gronk has more endorsement options in NE. Anywhere else, he gets more guaranteed $.
 

TheoShmeo

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Even with the new deal, he seems underpaid.

"giving him chance to become highest paid TE in NFL"

He should be the highest paid TE no questions asked.

I'm honestly surprised Rosenhaus didn't get him more. I guess Gronk has more endorsement options in NE. Anywhere else, he gets more guaranteed $.
Then again, with a signed contract, he had absolutely no leverage to get a better deal short of holding out. And that does not seem to be in his DNA.

Anything the Pats did to improve the contract was in their enlightened self interest, to be sure. But they are not in the business of giving away money and I can't blame them for cutting a deal that provides the player with some incentives and doesn't make him the highest paid TE in the NFL, no questions asked.

To the extent that this deal provides Gronk with a little extra push to get in "stay on the field" shape a la his QB, so much the better. Not that any one method is a failsafe, but I like the idea of Gronk being financially motivated to play as much as possible.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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We'll have to wait for Miguel, but it looks to me as though this isn't a very big deal at all and what it essentially does is gives him a chance to make more money this year, with the downside of possibly reducing his pay next year and the year after if he hits the low or mid-level of the targets.

It should be cap neutral this year, since he didn't play last year so any incentive increases that he might earn this year would be NLTBE.
 

H78

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They really want to destroy the league this year.
 

NortheasternPJ

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Then again, with a signed contract, he had absolutely no leverage to get a better deal short of holding out. And that does not seem to be in his DNA.

Anything the Pats did to improve the contract was in their enlightened self interest, to be sure. But they are not in the business of giving away money and I can't blame them for cutting a deal that provides the player with some incentives and doesn't make him the highest paid TE in the NFL, no questions asked.

To the extent that this deal provides Gronk with a little extra push to get in "stay on the field" shape a la his QB, so much the better. Not that any one method is a failsafe, but I like the idea of Gronk being financially motivated to play as much as possible.
Agreed 100%. The Pats gave him this deal to make him happy, give him incentive to stay on the field and maximize his production. The downside is if he produces to what he's capable of the Pats probably win a Super Bowl and lose cap money. He gets hurt, Gronk gets good money and can't complain. Makes everyone a winner if he produces, gives the Pats an out if he doesn't.
 

Tony C

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Beyond a good will gesture to Gronk and probably the players in general, an incentive-laden deal indicates real confidence from Gronk that his back won't hold him back post-injury.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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To the extent that this deal provides Gronk with a little extra push to get in "stay on the field" shape a la his QB, so much the better. Not that any one method is a failsafe, but I like the idea of Gronk being financially motivated to play as much as possible.
Agreed 100%. The Pats gave him this deal to make him happy, give him incentive to stay on the field and maximize his production.
I understand - to an extent - the point you guys are making, but is this something we are worried about?

I understand the party life concerns, but it's not like the guy comes to camp out of shape or sloughs it in the weight room. And I'm not sure the injuries he's suffered can at all be attributed to something he can control by working harder - in fact, I think he's given some leash because he works so hard. I think this is much more about the good will garnered for an extension down the road, with minimal downside to the team since it's incentive based.

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding the point you guys are making, but I don't think this was about lighting a fire under his ass. Either way, good to see everyone happy and Gronk get what he deserves.
 

uk_sox_fan

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The All-Pro clause seems key for him. Applying the contract backwards to his 7 playing years he would have been Tier 3 based on TDs in 2012 (55/790/11) but making AP would get him the $4m boost to Tier 1. In 2015 (72/1176/11) he'd have been Tier 2 on catches and yards but again for the AP clause getting him the extra $2m of Tier 1.

In the years he didn't make all-pro he'd have been Tier 3 as a rookie in 2010 (42/546/10) based on TDs and received just his base salary of $5.25m in 2013 (39/592/4) and last year (25/540/3).
 

TheoShmeo

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I understand - to an extent - the point you guys are making, but is this something we are worried about?

I understand the party life concerns, but it's not like the guy comes to camp out of shape or sloughs it in the weight room. And I'm not sure the injuries he's suffered can at all be attributed to something he can control by working harder - in fact, I think he's given some leash because he works so hard. I think this is much more about the good will garnered for an extension down the road, with minimal downside to the team since it's incentive based.

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding the point you guys are making, but I don't think this was about lighting a fire under his ass. Either way, good to see everyone happy and Gronk get what he deserves.
I don't think we have to choose between good will with Gronk and trying to craft a deal that will provide him maximum incentive to train in a way that will keep him on the field.

Meaning that the deal was probably designed with both in mind.

My point was not that Gronk came into camp out of shape. But whatever he's been doing over the years has often resulted in or translated to injuries and missing games. Maybe some of that was unavoidable. Maybe there's literally nothing he could do differently to change the outcome. But the Pats don't have to be right here. This is not exact science by any means. They just are doing their best to align incentives, and at the same time doing something that might make Gronk more likely to extend later.
 

uk_sox_fan

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Does anyone know if the All-Pro incentive triggers with 2nd Team All-Pro or just 1st Team? And is it AP? (E.g. in 2009 Dallas Clark was 1st Team All Pro with AP, Sporting News and ProFootball Writers while Jason Witten was 1st Team with Pro Football Focus and 2nd Team with SN and Antonio Gates was 2nd Team with AP)

With the exception of All Pro designation, the contract tier is almost always defined by receptions. In the past 20 years there would have been 39 Tier 1 TEs and all of them had 80+ receptions. The only ones of the 50 Tier 2 TEs since '97 who had fewer than 70 receptions were:

T Eifert '15 (52/615/13)
A Gates '14 (69/821/12)
J Thomas '14 (43/489/12)
V Davis '13 (52/850/13)
J Thomas '13 (65/788/12)
W Walls '99 (63/822/12)

And only about 6 of the ~66 Tier 3 TEs in that period made it without 60 receptions with only Davis in '10 (56/914/7) and '13 (52/850/13) passing the 800yd rec threshold without catching 60 balls.
 

finnVT

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Err, the 3rd tier is basically the same money he was going to get anyway, right (6.75m)? So what's below that? I.e., if he gets hurt early in the season and doesn't even reach the 3rd tier levels does he end up making less than what he was going to make this year?
 

tims4wins

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Err, the 3rd tier is basically the same money he was going to get anyway, right (6.75m)? So what's below that? I.e., if he gets hurt early in the season and doesn't even reach the 3rd tier levels does he end up making less than what he was going to make this year?
No, he makes his scheduled $5.25M
 

Hoodie Sleeves

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I understand - to an extent - the point you guys are making, but is this something we are worried about?

I understand the party life concerns, but it's not like the guy comes to camp out of shape or sloughs it in the weight room. And I'm not sure the injuries he's suffered can at all be attributed to something he can control by working harder - in fact, I think he's given some leash because he works so hard. I think this is much more about the good will garnered for an extension down the road, with minimal downside to the team since it's incentive based.

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding the point you guys are making, but I don't think this was about lighting a fire under his ass. Either way, good to see everyone happy and Gronk get what he deserves.

I'm totally with you here.

Gronk doesn't seem to lack motivation, and the idea that he needs to train harder to avoid injuries is a bit strange. All of his injuries have been of the traumatic kind.


I don't like anything that incentivises him being on the field when he's a little hurt, either.