The list of players who were "almost" members of the Baltimore Ravens is a mile long, and seemingly only grows longer each day as more and more players share stories from their past.
That said, the reason players share these stories is because they're very interesting to hear about, especially when they're coming from all-time great players. After all, who doesn't like to think about what could've been?
The latest story in this long line of them comes from future Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski, who revealed on his "Dudes on Dudes" podcast with former teammate Julian Edelman that the Ravens almost drafted him on two separate occasions back in 2010.
"The Baltimore Ravens were going to pick me, I think it was the 25th pick that they had in the draft," Gronkowski said. "But then Denver and Josh McDaniels came scooping in and traded with the Baltimore Ravens. The Denver Broncos took Tim Tebow. I just got booted out of the first round."
"The Ravens have the 43rd pick now. Well then the New England Patriots got a sniff of it, and they traded up one spot before the Baltimore Ravens at No. 42, where I got drafted."
Baltimore was definitely in the market for a tight end at that time. Todd Heap, the Ravens' top tight end in 2009 with 593 yards and six touchdowns, was entering his age-30 season, which would prove to be his last in purple and black. The Ravens also drafted two tight ends later on in the draft, selecting Ed Dickson in the third round and Dennis Pitta in the fourth round. Both players had solid careers, but unfortunately for the Ravens, they weren't anywhere close to Gronkowski.
To be fair, though, very few tight ends came close to Gronkowski. In 11 NFL seasons, he had 621 receptions for 9,286 yards and 92 touchdowns, ranking in the top 10 among tight ends in all three categories. He also made five Pro Bowls and four All-Pro First Teams, and won four Super Bowls together with Tom Brady.
If the Ravens had landed Gronkowski in 2010, and he developed similarly to how he did with the Patriots, they would've changed the course of not just their franchise, but the entire league going forward.
More must-reads: