Even someone with the career accolades of Rob Gronkowski is still susceptible to getting a profanity-laced tirade from Bucs head coach Bruce Arians during a given practice, just another adjustment the big tight end is having to make these days. Still, Gronkowksi has enjoyed the relationship that is being built with his new head coach as he gets closer to peak playing shape.

“Coach Arians is a great coach and I love listening to him talk,” Gronkowski said. “He always has great coaching points. He’s an offensive-minded coach, which is cool. Whenever he talks, you listen. Whenever he has a coaching point, you listen too, because it’s always a great coaching point, it’s always a coaching point that doesn’t just help yourself in a route or a block, but also helps the team out.”

Bruce Arians and Tom Brady – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

A plethora of Bucs players on the 2020 roster enjoy trash-talking, and you can certainly add the Bucs’ head coach to that list as well. Arians hasn’t shied away from having some words for Gronkowski, particularly during last Friday’s scrimmage.

“That 16-play drive, he wasn’t ready for that one – neither were a lot of guys,” Arians said. “He (Gronkowski) said, ‘I was only supposed to get 15 plays [and] I got 16 in a row.’ I said, ‘Well, you’re going to get about 10 more, so suck it up.’ He’s fun to be around and he’s done a good job.”

Gronkowski understands that it’s just part of the game. He’s never shied away from jawing at opponents on the football field, and battling through the mental challenges his career has posed has sharpened him for seasons like this one.

“The trash talking is always cool too, that’s part of football,” Gronkowski said. “There’s never gonna be just a pat on the back every single play or every single route. It’s football, you got to be mentally tough, you gotta be mentally strong, you’re gonna get called out at times if you’re not doing things right. It’s all part of the game and I just gotta be better at all times, conditioning wise, route-running wise, in the blocking game, you just always gotta be on top of your game.”

Gronkowski mentioned that it’s one thing to watch Arians get animated at another player, but you don’t want to be the person on the receiving end of it.

“At first it’s like ‘Wow, that’s pretty funny’, if you’re not the one receiving it,” Gronkowski said. “And then if you’re receiving it you’re like ‘Oh shoot, it’s not as funny anymore. I gotta get better, I gotta go out there and perform.’ It gets motivating, though, for sure. When the head coach is getting on you, it motivates you. It’s all [to help you make] a good, positive play. There may be some colorful language, but that’s fine, that’s the game of football, it’s all to make yourself better, it’s all to make the team better and that’s what it’s all about. It’s good to have that too, it keeps your tail on point, it keeps you going, it keeps you motivated.”

As Gronkowksi gets back into game shape after a year off, he found Friday’s scrimmage to be very helpful in terms of going through all the regular nuances that he’s not yet familiar with on a new team.

“It helped tremendously,” Gronkowski said. “It’s a new team, new organization, so you don’t really have the feel of how they do things on game day. Before the scrimmage started we kind of went through things like how we would on game day like how to warm up, routes on air, 7-on-7, team, all that type of stuff. Everyone does it different so it’s good to have that feel so when game time comes you’re not scrambling around seeing where you need to be, not warming up properly. That’s always good to get the little things out of the way and that helped out big time in the scrimmage.”

Bucs TE Rob Gronkowski – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Soon Gronkowski and the Bucs will turn their attention to their Week 1 matchup against the New Orleans Saints, 12 days away. In the meantime, there is still plenty Gronkowski is focused on in preparation for his first NFL game in a uniform other than the ones he wore in New England.

“What I want to accomplish until the game is gaining the trust of my teammates, gaining the respect of my teammates,” Gronkowski said. “So when I go out there on the field, the guy next to me trusts me, and I can go out there on the field and trust the guy next to me too. That’s what it’s all about in practice, gaining the trust of each other so when you go out there, you perform.

“That first snaps not gonna be for like, what? 12 days is it? [I’m] just preparing to the best I can so when that first snap does hit I’m ready to go. I’m prepared, I’m not thinking and hopefully I’m just filled with joy, that’s what I’m going for. Just going out there and be filled with joy and be filled with adrenaline, that’s all you can ask for, joy and adrenaline, that’s a great combo right there.”