A day past the NFL trade deadline and Tony Gonzalez remains a member of the Atlanta Falcons. He will finish out his career with the 2-5 team that will likely soon be mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. Many fans wonder why the Falcons opted not to trade the tight end to team poised for the Super Bowl, but in the end, no one made a real offer.
Rumors have been flying the past few weeks that the Falcons would trade away Gonzalez. The future Hall of Fame player opted out of retirement to try and give the Super Bowl one more shot. In the preseason, Atlanta looked to be the best opportunity to make that goal happen. However, several injuries have put the Falcons into a deep hole likely too big to climb out of. Speculation ran wild that the Kansas City Chiefs would try and bring the tight end back from the remainder of the season since they are undefeated, but the team decided to keep their roster intact for the year.
Gonzalez was open to a trade, but was not requesting one. The 37-year-old told ESPN.com that if the Falcons thought a trade was the best option for the team then he would agree, but any potential moves were not coming because he requested to jump the sinking ship that is in Atlanta.
"I'm still happy as I can be to be a Falcon," Gonzalez said. "I know there were trade rumors out there. I didn't ask for a trade. That wasn't me. I signed up, and this is the team that ... I came back to play with these guys on the team. And I'm enjoying myself, win, lose or draw. Obviously I'd rather win. It makes it a lot more fun. But there is no way I would think about jumping ship because I love playing for this team, I love playing for this city."
General manager Thomas Dimitroff notes that keeping Gonzalez on the team gave the Falcons the best chance at winning. He decided against trading away the veteran in favor of a wide receiver to replace the injured Julio Jones mainly because it would take too much time to get a new player up to speed with the current plan in place with the Falcons.
"We are confident in our roster and our football team," Dimitroff told D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "We are all aware that we have not gotten the results that we want so far, but I believe in our coaches and players. We owe it to our owner, our fans, our coaches and our players to win as many games as possible, and we believe that we have the pieces to be a good football team. We know we have dug ourselves a hole, but together we can dig ourselves out and that is what we are focused on."
Dimitroff makes good points for not moving Gonzalez at the deadline. While it is hard to see the tight end finish one of the best careers in the NFL by being double-teamed right into retirement, he is one of the remaining offensive targets Matt Ryan can rely on.