Buy or Sell: Rob Gronkowski

Rob Gronkowski
ADP: 15
TE: 1

It’s been an eventful offseason for Rob Gronkowski, as he celebrates his first Super Bowl championship. He’s definitely been living it up.

As the calendar turns and it gets close to return to camp for another season, fans and fantasy players are debating where to take the talented tight end.

On one hand, he’s perhaps the most dominant offensive skill player in the league not taking snaps. On the other, he has had a collection of injuries over the years. His upside has his ADP in the middle of the second round, with some taking him even toward the middle of the first. Is he worth the risk?

Buy: Vomhof

I’m fully on board the Gronk hype train.

You win fantasy championships by filling your lineup with as many weekly difference makers as you can—and Rob Gronkowski delivers that in spades.

Gronk has piled up a jaw-dropping 54 touchdowns in 65 career games. He scored 12 times in 2014, becoming the first tight end ever to score 10 or more TDs in four separate seasons.

In a league with few elite fantasy tight ends, no one is more dominant. This guy gives you a huge advantage at the position every single week.

In fact, I could make a case for taking Gronk with the No. 1 pick. I probably wouldn’t do it, just because I still prefer to lock in a high-volume running back early, but I certainly don’t think it’s crazy to consider it.

Gronkowski is in a tier of his own as the No. 1 tight end. He’s still the Patriots’ top pass-catcher after the club failed to add a top wide receiver, and he’s absolutely dominant in the red zone. Plus, he’ll enter the season fully healthy for the first time in years.

You can get a solid running back, like Justin Forsett, Frank Gore or Mark Ingram, in the third round. But once Gronk’s off the board, things drop off quickly at tight end.

Give me Gronkowski—and the weekly fantasy edge he gives me—in the late first.

Sell: Andy

Rob Gronkowski is a great player. If he can stick around for a handful more years, playing more than sitting from injury, he’s a likely candidate for the Hall of Fame. He’s the most talented tight end in the league right now by far.

I probably won’t own him on a fantasy team this year.

It’s often said you can’t win a league in the first round but you can lose it. With all the educational tools out there these days, it’s rare to find the homer guy taking his favorite player from the local team in round one anymore. So losing a league in the first round is most often going to happen, I think, when you take a guy who gets hurt.

Enter Gronk.

As great as he is, Gronk has missed 15 games over the last three seasons. He might average a touchdown a game, but he can’t increase that total while he’s sitting on the bench. And a guy hurt as often as he is who takes as many hits as he does … When the price is a mid-to-late first or an early second, no thanks. I’ll pass.

I know injuries are risks for every player. And I know that if I pass on Gronk, there’s a likelihood I end up with a TE whose contributions are maybe a fraction of what Gronk will do if he stays healthy. But it’s easier to take the occasional goose egg from someone you draft in the seventh or eighth or 10^th or 12^th round than someone you take at the top of the draft. Give me Kyle Rudolph, give me Travis Kelce, give me Jordan Cameron, give me Zach Ertz. I’ll live with their ups and downs and let someone else ride the high-risk, high-reward, high-entertainment juggernaut of Gronk.

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