Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians said on Monday that he was neither surprised nor concerned about the fact that tight end Rob Gronkowski has two catches through the first two weeks of the regular season.
Arians said he trusts quarterback Tom Brady to throw the ball to the right places and that hasn’t been in Gronkowski’s direction all that often so far this season. The topic came back up on Wednesday and Arians didn’t change his view of the relatively quiet start to the season for Gronkowski.
“We haven’t had that many red-zone opportunities and I don’t see him running 40 yards past people any more ... We brought him in to play tight end,” Arians said, via Greg Auman of TheAthletic.com. “If that means no catches, that means no catches. If it means 10 catches, it means 10 catches because he’s open and that’s where the ball goes.”
Gronkowski has played 73 percent of the team’s offensive snaps through the first two weeks of the season and Arians complimented his run blocking after beating the Panthers. While it might not be the impact many anticipated, those two things make it clear the lack of catches isn’t stopping Gronkowski from having an impact on the Tampa offense.