Tom Brady's retirement from the NFL has immediately cast doubt on the future of Hall of Fame tight-end Rob Gronkowski and wide receiver Antonio Brown.
Brady announced Tuesday he is walking away with seven Super Bowl rings and earnings of $292million in salary but it is two relationships with his favorite on-field targets that have analysts talking up a domino effect.
In Rob Gronkowski - Brady's most loyal of sidekicks - is a tight-end who only knows the NFL life with Brady by his side.
Study together, eat together, diet together, holiday together, shoot adverts together, everything. With Brady walking away, questions are swirling on whether Gronkowski will be next to call it a day.
Then there is the curious case of wideout Brown who many teams don't want to get anywhere near. He's trouble, a lot of coaches believe, but Brady has always been one of Brown's fiercest defenders and is the reason why he even ended up with the Bucs in Tampa.
So, Gronkowski is losing his trusted sidekick and Brown is now without his last remaining NFL lifeline.
Tom Brady (left) and Rob Gronkowski (right) have been inseparable in the NFL for the last decade. Pictured in 2014 after beating the Seattle Seahawks at Super Bowl XLIX
Receiver Antonio Brown (right) has been likened to a 'brother' to Brady (left) who roots for him
News of Brady's retirement will hit fewer players harder than tight-end Gronkowski, or 'Gronky' as TB12 affectionately refers to him as.
Gronkowski has never played on a team without Brady at QB.
In all his years in the NFL, Brady has been by his side since he got drafted to New England as the 42nd pick back in 2010.
With Brady's vision and his generational talent, Gronkowski has put together a Hall of Fame career, first in New England and now at Tampa.
'It's been amazing to watch him perform,' Brady gushed last year. 'He's obviously the greatest tight end to ever play the game and still doing it.
Gronkowski (right) got drafted as the 42nd pick in 2010 and has been a revelation with Brady
Fans took to the pairing as the most effective in the league and they have four Super Bowl wins
'I think his ability to block in the run game, run routes in the pass game, win against smaller players, and then he's very clutch. He comes up big in the biggest moments.'
If Gronkowski does follow Brady out of the door in Tampa he will go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest TE to play the game.
A five-time Pro Bowler, four-time first-team All-Pro selection and a four-time Super Bowl champion, Gronkowski's tandem with Brady has been as lucrative as any in NFL history.
This is nothing new either. Since Gronkowski's rookie year - when Brady targeted the tight end 59 times and he scored 10 touchdowns - he has been TB12's go-to target.
The Brady-Gronkowski red zone hug became the default celebration and they soon found themselves inseparable off the turf as much as they were on it.
Study partners in the film room and couples holidays to go with it, a team without Brady may simply feel too alien for Gronkowski.
They became inseparable off the pitch and regularly took holidays and parties in together
'It will factor into the situation,' Gronkowski told TMZ Sports after the divisional round loss to the Rams last month, when asked if Brady's call on retirement will influence his own next move.
'He's got to do what he's got to do for himself and his family, no doubt about that. But then for myself, I got to do what I got to do, you know, what's best for myself, see where I'm at, how I'm feeling — all that type of stuff.'
One reason analysts believe Gronkowski - who would need to sign a new deal in Tampa given he was on a incentive-laden one-year deal - is that he is within touching distance of being statistically the best tight-end in NFL history.
As things stand, Gronkowski is third all-time in touchdowns for a TE with 93; only Antonio Gates (116) and Tony Gonzalez (111) are ahead of him.
Make no mistake that life in the NFL without Brady isn't just an inconvenience for Gronkowski, it is a whole new world.
The tight-end changed his diet because of Brady - cutting out sugar - and once said that they are so in sync, Brady can read his mind.
With Brady (right) as his QB, Gronkowski (left) has the third most touchdowns of a TE in history
