Bucs' Bruce Arians Not Surprised by Rob Gronkowski's Lack of Targets

Through his first two games out of retirement, Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski has been targeted just four times by quarterback Tom Brady, with whom he won three Super Bowls in New England. But Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians isn't concerned about Gronk's lack of production:

"We're not throwing the ball 50 times to the tight ends. That's what we have receivers for, that's the way our offense is built. Gronk's playing great run blocking in the fourth quarter, so I'm not concerned with his pass catches or his targets."

After Brady signed a two-year, $50 million deal with the Bucs this offseason, Gronkowski came out of retirement after just one season to reunite with his former teammate, with whom he played since the Patriots selected him in the second round in 2010.

It was a solid package on paper for the Bucs. The pair have combined for 7,768 yards, resulting in 78 touchdowns—double what he threw to Randy Moss, who collected 39. Brady's 95.0 passer rating from 2010 on grew to 121.6 when he targeted Gronk, as did his average yards, first downs and touchdown percentage, per FiveThirtyEight. In 2019, without Gronkowski, Brady wasn't named to the Pro Bowl for the first time in 10 seasons.

Arians said he intends to use Gronkowski as more of a run-blocker and commended the 31-year-old for a pass-interference call against the Carolina Panthers. If Gronkowski is working how Arians envisions, passes won't go to the tight end just for the sake of getting him targets.

"I don't think they're paying that much attention to him," he told reporters Monday. "Tom [Brady] has the ball [and] he decides where it's going, so he's reading the defenses and he's taking whatever they're giving him. We don't force passes to anybody."

Perhaps as Gronkowski gets back into the groove of playing in the NFL, he'll see more passes come his way. But for now, the way Arians has worked him into the scheme of the 1-1 Bucs is proving successful.