Mark Bavaro was, for a generation of football fans, the epitome of toughness at the tight end position, a player who could go over the middle and run over defensive backs downfield but also stay in to block and function as an extra offensive tackle. So when Patriots coach Bill Belichick compared Rob Gronkowski as a blocker to Bavaro, he was paying Gronk the ultimate compliment.
“Yeah, he’s one of the best blockers,” Belichick said of Gronkowski. “I mean, I’ll put him there with Bavaro in terms of the guys I’ve coached.”
Bavaro played for the Giants from 1985 to 1990, while Belichick was the Giants’ defensive coordinator. In 1991, Bavaro sat out the entire year, apparently unable to play anymore because of knee injuries. But in 1992, Belichick signed Bavaro to play for him in Cleveland. Belichick gushed when discussing Bavaro’s ability to block Hall of Famers yesterday.
“I mean, it’d be hard for me to put anybody past Bavaro just because of the number of times he blocked Reggie White with no help,” Belichick said. “We ran those 38-Boss and all that and they were in that over front and Reggie was the six-technique and Bavaro blocked him. There was no double team. He just blocked him. Now that was a good battle. Reggie got him a few times, too. I’ve seen Bavaro block [Lawrence] Taylor before, blocked [Carl] Banks. I mean those were as competitive matchups and practices I’ve ever seen. I mean it was awesome to watch players of that level compete the way they competed. All three of those guys were just tremendous football players. So, I have a lot of accolades for Rob and his blocking. I’m just saying it’s hard for me to put anybody past Bavaro based on Reggie White, Banks and Taylor. Those guys are pretty good. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times coaching Taylor he got blocked – I mean, not very many. He didn’t get blocked very often. They might have run away from him, they might have got in his way, but when he actually blocked-blocked, Banks, you can probably count those – it’d be in the single digits for me. But we didn’t play against Bavaro, but we played against him in practice, and we played against him in training camp where there was one-on-ones and nine-on-sevens and running drills. There was no, ‘Is this is a pass, do I have to re-route the guy?’ No, it wasn’t any of that. It was, ‘I know he’s blocking me, he knows he’s blocking me, let’s have at it.’ And that was awesome. That was awesome.”
Gronkowski is a better receiver than Bavaro ever was, but Belichick also wants Gronkowski to get credit for the way he blocks.
“But yeah, Rob does a good job. And he takes pride in it, too. There are a lot of plays Rob comes to the sideline and he’s more excited about a block he made on the series than a catch he made, which a lot of tight ends I’ve coached I wouldn’t put in that category. He really takes pride in it,” Belichick said.
If Gronkowski can just be the second-best blocking tight end Belichick ever coached, that would be a great accomplishment.
