Bill Belichick Gushes About Gronkowski's 'Underrated' Leadership
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's not too often Patriots head coach Bill Belichick gushes about a current player, but he had plenty of nice things to say about tight end Rob Gronkowski on Wednesday.
While Gronk's offseason fun usually makes for some interesting headlines on TMZ, Belichick brought a much different side of Gronkowski to light in his weekly press conference at Gillette. Asked about the tight end's leadership qualities, Belichick said that's an aspect of Gronk's game that is underrated.
"He doesn't really sometimes come across in that role, but what I see, Rob is very attentive, very coachable. You tell him what you want him to do, and he works very hard to do it the way you want it done," said Belichick. "He's a smart football player. He understands leverage. He understands position. He understands technique. He understands the concept of what you're trying to do. We move him around in a lot of different positions."
Not only is a tight end responsible for learning all the offensive sets, but he also has to focus on the protection game as well. That is also an underrated part of Gronk's game in Belichick's eyes.
"You have all the running game, and you have routes from sideline to the middle of the field to occasionally even in the backfield. So there's really no plays off mentally for that position," he said. "His work ethic, his ability to work with his teammates, whether it's the quarterback, the offensive tackle, the other tight ends or even with the defensive players is good.
"He is a great guy to have on the team," the coach continued. "Forget about the talent and all that. The way he goes about his job, the way he works, trains in the weight room, his physical conditioning, his mental concentration, focus and desire to be well, to do well and improve are very, very good."
Read: 6 Fictional Characters Who Have An Outside Shot At Covering Gronk
Look no further than Gronkowski's first preseason game with the Patriots for one of the earliest examples of his leadership. He didn't go out for a pass that game, focusing on protecting whoever it was the Patriots told him to. There were mistakes made, but Gronk quickly learned from them. And that's when Belichick knew he had to get Gronkowski involved in more ways than blocking.
"Rob has always been an accountable player," Belichick said. "He did it well [that first game]. The mistakes he made, he learned from. And the next week, [then-offensive coordinator] Billy [O'Brien] and I talked about it like, 'Look, we've got to get this guy in the passing game. He's more than a tackle. We've got to get him out there. We put emphasis on that, and he did that."
One name Belichick always brings up when talking about the great tight ends of the game is former Giants great Mark Bavaro. He mentioned Gronkowski in that same breath on Wednesday.
"He's one of our best run blockers, too, period, at any position. I'd say for me, him and Bavaro, they're the two best that I've ever had on a consistent basis for all the different things they have to do; not just one particular type of block or something like that. Rob takes a lot of pride in whatever he does. He takes pride in a good block just like he takes pride in a good catch, or he takes pride in breaking a tackle or, for that matter, recovering an onside kick, whatever it is," said Belichick.
"He does a great job of trying to do his job, whatever it is he's being asked to do and doing it well," the coach continued. "He's been in a lot of different roles for us, but I can honestly say I've never seen him do anything but try his very best at those roles, whatever they happened to be. He's not a one-dimensional player, and he sees football as a total team game and works hard at every aspect of it."
That's a whole lot of praise for one player, a side of Belichick we normally don't see until that player retires. But it's easy to understand why he loves Gronkowski, who has 64 touchdowns in 74 career games (playoffs included), so much. Really, who doesn't love Rob Gronkowski?
Tune in to Sunday's Patriots-Jaguars game on 98.5 The Sports Hub and WBZ-TV -- the flagship stations of the New England Patriots. Pregame coverage on 98.5FM begins at 10am, with a full postgame show following the game. WBZ-TV's coverage begins with Patriots GameDay at 11:30am, and after the switch to myTV38 for Patriots 5th Quarter!