Some Gronk-tastic news!

Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski suffered some nasty injures in Week 3 against the Rams that have kept him sidelined for quite some time. The veteran tight end sustained cracked ribs and a punctured lung on a devastating hit from Rams outside linebacker Terrell Lewis. When speaking to the media for the first time in several weeks, Gronk spoke about his mental state going through the process of recovery to an eventual return.

The arrow is pointing up.

“That game was two months ago. I’m just trying to put that in the past. Just went through the whole rehab process, trying to be better every single day. That’s the whole point of trying to come back from an injury. Just trying to improve every single day, every week, week-in, and week-out. That’s all you can ask for. There are definitely challenges. There are definitely difficult situations when you’re coming back from an injury. You have to make sure you’re doing the right thing and everything and make sure you’re improving every day. It’s going well now out here. Just did two practices in a row, so the arrow is pointing up to play this week. Hopefully, it’s ago.”

Age ain’t nothing but a number.

Rob Gronkowski is 32 years of age now, and that is relatively young, but he is also an 11-year veteran. He was asked on Friday if he believed that he could have returned from injury sooner when he was younger than he does now after 11-years in the league. Gronk doesn’t age matters.

“No, that didn’t really alter it at all. Just talking with the team, the team staff here, myself, and just seeing where I was at. We have a plan, and that’s to have a couple [of] practices under my belt this week and keep going from there. Just when I’m 100 percent and ready to go. We’re all on the same page here.”

Missing me missing you.

Gronk spoke about missing Week 4’s game against his former football team and that it was a bit of a letdown not being able to play in that game, but it’s the game, and that’s how things happen sometimes. You have to not let those kinds of things get to you and just focus on getting better and getting back to playing.

“It was definitely a bummer. It was away, and it would have definitely been nice to play in it, but, unfortunately, we saw what happened the week before, and it is what it is. That’s football when things happen like that. All I was doing was cheering the guys on. I was screaming for them, and they went out there and got the ‘W’ — which was nice. But most importantly, we’re just focused on this week. We have the Giants coming up on Monday night, and that’s where all of our focus is. The focus isn’t really about my injuries and the past. The focus isn’t about that game either. It’s about the Giants, and it’s about winning the game and getting another ‘W’ in the win column.”

Gronk’s Goal.

Rob Gronkowski is ready to get back to the game of football and is hoping that Monday will be the day he returns. He’s getting practices in and is taking steps in the right direction for a return. He wants nothing more than to be able to get back in and help his team win games.

“That’s all I want to do. I just want to be out there. I want to help out the guys. I want to be out there and make some plays like I was at the beginning of the year, have some first downs, have some touchdowns. Just help out the offense throughout the game — that’s my goal. We’re taking it one step at a time. I just had two good practices under my belt, and that’s a big step right there. That’s the first crucial step is having some practices under my belt and making sure I feel good after them. It’s going well, and the arrow is pointing up toward playing. Hopefully, it does go right, and I’m out there Monday night.”

Back; but briefly.

Gronk made an appearance before the Bye Week against the New Orleans Saints but only saw 6 total snaps before having to leave the game with back spasms. If Gronk can go on Monday night against the New York Giants, that means he feels well enough during pregame warmup and that the team has like what they see in “the way he’s moving around pregame, Bruce Arians said. “We’ll get a good look at him pregame. He moved around really well yesterday. He doesn’t practice on Friday anyway – this being a normal Friday, but it is Saturday. We’ll have to see how he goes, and if he plays, monitor his workload.”

There is no question that Gronk’s absence is noticeable on the field as his blocking ability and skills in the red zone, and third-down are hard to replace. “I think it’s that collective, what you just said. He’s a hell of a player in all those phases – third down, red zone, his energy,” said Arians, “He’s just a playmaker, and when you take those guys out of the lineup, they’re hard to replace.”

I know that Bucs fans everywhere have their fingers crossed in the hopes that Gronk can get back to playing and resume catching tuddies for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as soon as possible.