Rob Gronkowski has never been shy about giving Tom Brady his flowers. Four Super Bowl rings with Brady will do that. But when the conversation shifts to the best quarterback in the game right now, Gronkowski’s answer goes in a different direction: Josh Allen.
“I would go with Josh Allen. I mean, phenomenal quarterback, phenomenal guy, and he plays with passion,” Gronkowski said on the Sports Illustrated podcast, according to HITC.
That line fits a pattern. Gronkowski has been saying some version of this for years, and the praise has never really cooled off.
In a 2023 interview with Sports Illustrated’s Robin Lundberg, he singled out Allen’s accuracy and the way he “puts himself on the line for his team.” Around the same time, he also told Fan Duel’s Up & Adams that Allen and the Bills were the team he’d most want to play for in the playoffs.
The connection between the two went beyond admiration from afar. Gronkowski has said Allen actually tried to bring him out of retirement.
On the “Dudes on Dudes” podcast, Gronkowski explained that they crossed paths at Tight End University, where Allen made his pitch face to face. “He was trying to recruit me and was like, ‘Come on, come out of retirement, come to Buffalo, we would do big things,'” Gronkowski said.
“I’m like, we would do big things but it just never happened.”
That Buffalo pull makes sense. Gronkowski grew up in Amherst, New York, so the Bills were part of his life before the Patriots and long before the Buccaneers. Even after building his legacy in New England and Tampa, that hometown tie has never really gone away.
What stands out about Gronkowski’s pick is that he went with Allen over Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback most often placed at the top of the modern conversation. Gronkowski’s lean toward Allen has always seemed rooted in the way he plays.
It’s not just about numbers. It’s about the force, the risk, the physical edge.
Allen runs through contact, takes punishment, gets back up and keeps firing. That kind of style clearly resonates with Gronkowski.
It also would have made for a dangerous pairing. Allen has already shown he’s willing to lean on his tight ends when the moment gets big, and few players ever gave a quarterback more in the red zone than Gronkowski did.
Heading into the 2026 season, Allen’s top two tight end options are Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox. Kincaid scored five touchdowns last season, while Knox had four.
Gronkowski’s peak was on another level entirely. He finished with four or fewer receiving touchdowns in a season only three times in his 11-year career.
In his second NFL season, he piled up 17 touchdowns, one of the most dominant single-season totals ever by a tight end.
Allen and the Bills are also moving into the new Highmark Stadium this season, with Buffalo hoping the new home comes with a better outcome. Allen has spent eight seasons as the starter there, and a Super Bowl appearance still hasn’t happened.
Gronkowski is 36 now and four years removed from his last NFL snap, with his post-playing life firmly in place as a Fox NFL Sunday analyst. A comeback doesn’t appear to be on the table. Still, his comments say plenty about how much respect he has for Allen, and how close Buffalo once came to pairing its franchise quarterback with one of the most feared tight ends the league has ever seen.
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Watson has reportedly held the edge in the competition, but Sanders is set to start the upcoming preseason game, which should give Cleveland another data point before the real decision gets made. Browns coach Todd Monken has suggested veteran starters may sit out that game, and the Week 1 quarterback choice could come shortly after, keeping the Bills tied to one of the AFCs more closely watched camp stories. [Read more 🡒]