Rob Gronkowski began his second retirement following the 2021 NFL season. Much like his first retirement, Gronkowski might not stay on the sidelines indefinitely.

According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, teams have reached out to Gronk about the possibility to unretire and make it back to the NFL. Though the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had multiple conversations with the star tight end, he is not expected to return to the field before 2023.

Rapoport also cited Tom Brady’s impending free agent status as something to watch in regards to Gronk. If Brady leaves Tampa, Rapoport says it’s not out of the question for Gronk to reunite with the QB at his next destination.

“A couple of teams contacted him, contacted his agent just to see where he was and was he willing to unretire,” said Rapoport. “Turns out, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers actually had conversations with Gronk over the course of the past weeks, months just to see if he was possibly going to unretire and return to the team.

“Internally, from my understanding, the door is open for 2023. And of course we’ve talked Tom Brady is a free agent at the end of this year… there’s the possibility of Brady going somewhere else if he doesn’t retire, wouldn’t be surprised if Gronk followed him whereever he went.”

It would not be the first time Gronkowski followed Brady to a new destination. Gronk initially retired following the 2018 season and did not play at all in 2019.

After Brady signed with the Bucs in 2020, Gronk unretired and was traded by the Patriots to rejoin Brady. We’ll see if the duo finds a way to reunite once again in 2023.