Rob Gronkowski seems to be eyeing the Bengals as his next possible team if he plays in 2022

Rob Gronkowski has been in the NFL for 11 seasons and in each of those 11 seasons, Tom Brady was his quarterback. With Brady now retired, there’s been a lot of speculation about whether Gronk will join him in retirement or decide to play for at least one more season. 

One thing that might compel Gronk to return in 2022 is the fact that he’s set to be a free agent this offseason, which means he would get to pick the next team he plays for, and apparently, he’s already eyeing one specific team. During a question-and-answer session on Tuesday with a company called Autograph NFTs, Gronk was asked what quarterback he would like to play with next season and he didn’t hesitate at all when he gave his answer.  

“I kinda like this young buck quarterback. He’s in the Super Bowl now: It’s Joe Burrow, man,” Gronkowski said, via MassLive.com. “I watched him in college. I just love the way he presents himself out on the football field. In the pocket he’s just so calm and he just slings it out on the field.”

It’s almost fitting that Gronk wants to play with Burrow and that’s mostly because many people have been comparing the Bengals QB to Brady, including Von Miller, who made the comparison this week. 

“I don’t like making comparisons to anybody else. Joe Burrow is his own guy, but you definitely see shades of Tom Brady in this guy,” Miller said. 

According to Gronk, Burrow has everything he’s looking for in a future QB. 

“I just love his swag, too,” Gronkowski said of Burrow. “If I had to pick a quarterback it’d be the young buck Joe Burrow. He’s killing it right now in the game.”

The Bengals have a good tight end right now in C.J. Uzomah, but he’s going to be a free agent, which means the team might be in the market for someone to replace him and if you can find a replacement who just happens to be a future Hall of Famer, that would seem like the ideal situation. 

The Bengals are expected to have a lot of salary cap space once free agency starts, which means maybe this Gronk to Cincinnati thing could actually happen. Of course, if it is going to happen, Gronk would have to actually play in 2022, and right now, he doesn’t sound so sure about that. During an interview in late January, Gronk said he’d call it quits if he had to make a decision right now. 

“If they’re like, ‘Rob, you’ve got to decide right now, right this second if you’re playing next year,’ I would say no right now,” Gronk said. “I would be like, ‘No, I’m not playing.’”

If Gronk does play, he’s going to be a highly-coveted free agent and based on his comments, it seems that the Bengals would have the inside track of landing him.