Rob Gronkowski Fantasy Outlook Makes Him a Boom or Bust Player in 2020 Drafts

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers brought Rob Gronkowski our of his brief retirement this offseason, acquiring him from the New England Patriots and reuniting him with his long time quarterback, Tom Brady. The question that is on every fantasy football owners mind is which Rob Gronkowski will we see this season?

His range of outcomes is incredible wide, as a healthy Gronk was one of the best fantasy tight ends of all time, but that health is far from guaranteed.

Fantasy Football managers will never forget the stretch of dominance Gronkowski had in the 2014 and 2015 seasons, when he averaged 1,1150 yards and 11.5 touchdowns. He was the No. 1 fantasy tight end before injuries caused him to miss half of the 2016 season.

Gronkowski came back strong in 2017, posting another 1,000+ yard season to go along with 8 touchdowns in 14 games played. However, his 2018 season was quite the opposite as he was able to play 13 games, but only accumulated 682 yards and found the endzone only 3 times.

His injury issues ultimately led to his retirement, but Gronk is back and claims to be as healthy as ever. Fantasy football managers may find it worth it to take a chance on Gronkowski, but need to have backup plan in mind in case his injuries come back to haunt him.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have no shortage of offensive weapons as a pair of 1,000 yard wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin spearhead the team, while Ronald Jones, LeSean McCoy, and OJ Howard represent solid production potential as well. With that number of playmakers, it'll be hard for Gronkowski to match the target share he saw while in New England.

Gronkowski has averaged 9.9 yards per target throughout his entire career, which he won't be able to sniff in this offense. Still, the potential for heavy red zone volume and his obvious rapport with Brady gives him a ton of upside.

Gronkowski falls outside of the top 10 TEs in our 2020 fantasy football rankings, coming in at No. 14, but his average draft position (ADP) has been slowly increasing as the season nears and is currently being drafted as the No. 8 TE, per Fantasypros ADP data.

The boom-or-bust, touchdown-heavy nature of Gronk's 2020 output makes him an especially interesting pick in best ball drafts. In best ball leagues you don't need to worry about guessing which weeks Gronk is going to find the end zone and which weeks he'll be left out of the game plan.

Join FanDuel Daily Fantasy to compete for cash in free & paid to play games. New users get a $5 bonus with their first deposit.

Larry Rupp is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Larry Rupp also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username phillyfan424. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.