Tom Brady On Not Having Rob Gronkowski Anymore: 'No One's Going To Make Any Excuses For Our Offense'
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady will still be leading the New England offense in 2019, but the unit is going to look a whole lot different than it did over the last 10 years. With Rob Gronkowski retiring in May, Brady will be missing one of his biggest and best targets throughout his Hall of Fame career.
Brady now has a tight end corps made up of veteran Ben Watson, Matt LaCosse and Stephen Anderson. Watson will have to sit out the first four games of the season due to a PED suspension, so Brady will likely have LaCosse as his top tight end option when the Patriots open their 2019 season against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 8.
That's a fairly significant shift, going from one of the best playmakers to ever play the position to what the Patriots have now. But in talking about life after Gronk following Thursday's conclusion of minicamp, Brady sound optimistic that the New England offense will still score a bunch of points this season.
"I think like any season, things are different and we're going to have to adjust differently and teams are going to play us differently without him," said Brady. "We've seen it even when he's been on the team. The other guys are getting up to speed, Matt's done a good job, Ben's done a good job, Stephen Anderson's done a good job."
One thing is for certain: Gronk's retirement is not an excuse for the offense to take a step back.
"That's got to be a position of strength even if it's not one player but multiple players doing different roles," Brady continued. "There were times in my career before that where we had similar approaches. No one's going to make any excuses for our offense, we're going to do everything we can to be the best we can be, score every time we touch the ball and the tight end position is a big part of our offense. Those guys are going to have to do a great job for us."
The New England offense will be evolving more this season, as it's impossible to fill Gronk's massive shoes. But Brady sounds confident that his current crop of tight ends will do their best.