Gronk Just Explained How Belichick, With Help From Josh McDaniels, Kept Him From Being Drafted by the Ravens

Matthew Healey. Shutterstock Images.

The timing of this item is strange. Almost a Synchronicity. Because just yesterday some friends and I were texting some great Boston sports "What ifs." Grady Little takes out Pedro. Len Bias doesn't die. Injuries don't cut Bobby Orr and Larry Bird's careers short. Asante Samuel holds onto the interception. Wes Welker holds onto the pass, and so on. And of course the biggest, most historic one, what if Babe Ruth is never sold? 

So 24 hours later, the universe hands us this counter-factual. One that I hadn't heard about until just now, 15 years after it happened. What if the Ravens succeeded in their goal to draft Rob Gronkowski?

“The Baltimore Ravens were gonna pick me; I think it was around the 25th pick that they had in the [2010] draft. And I’m not 100% accurate, but I’ve heard through the grapevine that they were going to grab me with the 25th pick.”

“But then Denver and Josh McDaniels came scooping in and traded with the Baltimore Ravens at the 25th pick, which put the Ravens at the 43rd pick. So I just got booted out of the first round. [The Ravens] felt like ‘Hey, we were the only ones gonna draft him in the first round, we could possibly get him in the second.' And the Patriots got a sniff of it and they traded up one spot before the Baltimore Ravens at No. 42 where I got drafted.”

Gronk says he's not 100% accurate, so I went to Pro Football Reference and Wikipedia. And sure enough, the math checks out:

Baltimore did have the 25th pick. Until Josh McDaniels, then with Denver, enticed them to give up their dream of taking Gronkowski by offering them the 43rd, 70th, and 114th pick. Which Ozzie Newsome turned into Sergio Kindle, Ed Dickson, and Dennis Pitta. Which is actually a nice haul. What the Broncos got for McDaniels' effort was Tim Tebow, which wasn't. 

Belichick then leapfrogged over the Ravens from 44 to 42 by sending the Raiders the 190th pick. What he got was the greatest tight end in NFL history.

File that one away for the next time you're in an argument with some anti-Belichick extremist who wants you to acknowledge the multiple-time Executive of the Year never once made a successful draft pick that wasn't just pure dumb luck or him losing a power struggle with ownership or whatever. He read the draft board and Newsome's mind like Professor X:

Even more, he had the foresight to send McDaniels to Denver in yet another of his successful efforts to destroy a rival franchise from within. A cycle we'd see repeated in places like Cleveland, Detroit, the Jets and Giants, Las Vegas. And then, with his minions work done, he'd hire them back again like the loyal double agents they were. Spies coming in from the cold. 

As far as the "What if" regarding Gronk, he was nothing less than a superweapon that would've changed the balance of power in the AFC for a decade. The effect of Tom Brady not having him to throw to is immeasurable. Especially after his TE2 went on Aaron Murdandez on everyone. All you need do is run down the list of tight ends the Pats drafted in subsequent years - footnotes to history like AJ Derby, Ryan Izzo, Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene - which demonstrate how hard it is to draft and develop this position. 

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Oddly enough, Gronk didn't face the Ravens very often. Hardly at all, in fact. Just twice in the regular season and twice in the playoffs. Which is a weird sort of Mandela Effect dynamic because I feel like I have vivid memories of him torturing their defenses. But chalk that up to the fact he was at his best against them in the big games. In the two regular season games, in 2010 and 2012, he totaled 3 receptions for 45 yards. While in the 2011 AFC championship game he had 5 catches for 87 yards, despite getting a high ankle sprain at the hands of Bernard Pollard, the Typhoid Mary of Patriots injuries. In the 2014 Divisional playoff he went off, finishing with 7 receptions, 108 yards, and a touchdown. Take him out of either of those games and put him to Joe Flacco's use, and thats two Super Bowls the Patriots don't get to and one they don't win. 

As it was, the 2014 team was 10 years removed from their last championship. And it's quite possible either Brady, Belichick, or the Krafts would've gotten sick of postseason failures and changes would've been forthcoming. It's certainly not out of the realm to think that if Belichick doesn't outmaneuver the Ravens and get their guy, none of the last three banners are hanging in the corner of Gillette opposite the lighthouse. Needless to say, we all prefer this reality. Now if we could just change the part where Gronk and Brady leave, we'd be living in a utopia.