According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network — Robert Kraft actually walked up say his goodbye to Rob Gronkowski, who was cleaning out his locker at Gillette Stadium, and straight up told him that he wants him to return for November, December, and a playoff run.
Rapoport goes on to state that the Patriots would welcome him back with open arms. For Gronk to be added to the active roster, he would need to do so before November 30th as that is the deadline.
As of now, Gronkowski is on the reserve/retired list, so he needs to be on the active roster before the Patriots Week 13 game or he will not be eligible to play in 2019.
As you might remember, it was the Patriots owner who revealed that Gronkowski has yet to file his retirement papers, but a source told Rapoport that Gronk has shown zero signs of coming out of retirement.
Gronkowski joined FOX Sports as an analyst last month, but even that wouldn’t stop him from coming out of retirement as we saw with Jason Witten returning to the Dallas Cowboys.
“I would have to be feeling it. … I’m enjoying myself right now. I don’t have that itch, and if I had that itch, I’d go back. … It would have to be a continuous itch,” he said.
During his career, the 30-year-old caught 521 passes for 7,861 yards receiving and 79 touchdowns for the Patriots over the course of nine seasons.
