Rob Gronkowski had a good time on the ESPYs red carpet with tennis player Daniela Hantuchova. Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

NFL camps have started … do you know where your former Arizona Wildcats are?

Offseason news has been dominated by ex-UA tight end Rob Gronkowski, who followed up his record-setting second season with the New England Patriots with what is widely referred to as the “Summer of Gronk.”

Let the Boston Globe describe it:

“Gronkowski, in no particular order, won a celebrity home run derby at the Triple-A All-Star Game (reportedly hitting one 325 feet), appeared on The Choice, a dating show, co-hosted Access Hollywood Live, judged a celebrity bikini contest in Las Vegas and walked the ESPY’s red carpet. He also attended the premier of the movie “Ted,” hung out with Kim Kardashian, was one of the naked cover boys for ESPN The Magazine, and ran a viral video campaign trying to land on the cover of the Madden video game.

Oh, and he also signed a six-year contract extension worth $54 million – the richest deal ever given to a tight end. It includes $18.17 million in guaranteed money.”

Oh, to be Gronk.

Gronk is the headliner among the former Arizona Wildcats in the NFL, with 22 players on camp rosters.

Here is a look at who is where:

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The Pac-12 posted this video, which features former Arizona receiver Mike Thomas of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and ex-UA defensive end D’Aundre Reed, a rookie with the Minnesota Vikings.

Thomas on the Zona Zoo: “It’s nutty in there, it’s grimy in there.”

Rob Gronkowski celebrates his 10th touchdown of his rookie season, which came against Miami on Jan. 2. Photo by Stew Milne-US PRESSWIRE

Updates with the Vikings waiving OL Conan Amituanai, and the Lions waiving RB Mike Bell and S Michael Johnson on Monday. The Bengals, according to a report, reached an injury settlement with DT Lolomana Mikele before releasing him.

As of Monday night there were 19 former Arizona Wildcats football players on NFL rosters; teams have to cut to 80 by Tuesday and then to 53 by Sept. 3.

Several ex-Cats won’t survive those cuts but could end up on practice squads or hook on with other teams.

Since camps began, seven former Arizona players have been waived — rookie free agent OL Conan Amituanai (Minnesota), rookie free agent receiver Travis Cobb (Chicago), rookie free agent DT Lolomana Mikaele (Cincinnati), running back Chris Henry (Seattle), running back Mike Bell (Lions), defensive back Michael Johnson (Lions) and veteran tight end Brandon Manumaleuna, who failed his physical in Chicago.

Here is a breakdown of who is still standing, for now:

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Brooks Reed takes on a tackling dummy on the first day of camp, Aug. 1. Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images

Arizona sent three defensive ends into the NFL Draft — second-rounder Brooks Reed (Houston), sixth-rounder Ricky Elmore (Green Bay) and seventh-round selection D’Aundre Reed (Minnesota).

Brooks Reed is drawing positive reviews as he makes the conversion to outside linebacker. Texans coach Gary Kubiak said this after evaluating the team’s first preseason game:

“Brooks Reed didn’t have the sacks, so to speak, but when you went back and watched the game, I was very encouraged by him. I thought he did a nice job.”

Meanwhile, Elmore appears to be struggling while trying to make the same position switch to outside linebacker.

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Brooks Reed's hustle is one reason why he was a second-round pick. Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

Former Arizona Wildcat defensive end Brooks Reed has some financial security.

Reed, a Sabino High graduate and a second-round pick of the Houston Texas, signed a four-year contract Sunday worth $4.701 million — $2.779 of which is guaranteed. Reed, 24, earned All-Pac-10 honors last season, when he had 6.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss.

Scouts liked his hustle, variety of pass-rush moves and his versatility, as he will move to strongside linebacker with the Texans.

Reed can still go back to end and contribute there in passing situations.

Ex-Cat Ricky Elmore, a sixth-round pick, has signed and is camp with the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers. He, too, is being converted to linebacker.

D’Aundre Reed, the third of Arizona’s defensive ends to be drafted this year, signed the Minnesota as a seventh-round pick.

Ricky Elmore (57) is all smiles as he pushes Ethan Olson, from Coal City, Ill., on his tiny bike on the way to training camp practice at Ray Nitschke Field on Saturday. Photo by Evan Siegle/Green Bay Press-Gazette

Ricky Elmore (left) and Brooks Reed have been three-year mainstays at defensive end.
Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops was selling the future in his early days in Tucson, and recruits were listening.

His 2006 group was the highest rated among his seven recruiting classes — ranked 18th nationally by Rivals.com and 19th by Scout.com. That doesn’t always translate to success on the field, but, in this case, it did.

That 2006 class — “they’re the cornerstones,” Stoops said — makes its final stand Wednesday night in the Alamo Bowl against Oklahoma State.

With a foundation that includes Colin Baxter, Brooks Reed and Ricky Elmore — plus departed standouts Earl Mitchell, Devin Ross, Nate Ness and Cam Nelson — that 2006 class helped Stoops turn around the program.

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UA assistant coach Jeff Hammerschmidt is working with perhaps the best group of defensive ends in the Pac-10/Photo by Nico Gimino

I caught up recently with Arizona assistant coach Jeff Hammerschmidt, who is in charge of the defensive ends and special teams. Not a bad gig this season.

At defensive end, he has senior starters Brooks Reed and Ricky Elmore, each capable of double-digit sack totals. And there is also senior D’Aundre Reed, often overlooked, but coaches consider him to be a co-starter.

In fact, D’Aundre Reed, at 6-4 and 258 pounds, has the right combination of size and speed to move to a defensive tackle position when the Wildcats want to go “Cheetah.” That’s the name of their speedy pass-rush package that the coaches experimented with in the spring … and they continue to do so in fall camp.

(Arizona worked on this scheme in its two-minute drill Monday night, with D’Aundre Reed and fellow end Apai Tuihalamaka moving inside.)

“It’s just a matter of getting comfortable with it,” Hammerschmidt said.

On special teams, punt returner Bug Wright and kick returner Travis Cobb each had a return touchdown last season. Senior punter Keenyn Crier (42.9-yard career average) has one of the best legs in the Pac-10. Sophomore placekicker Alex Zendejas’ last kick in a game beat Arizona State on the final play.

John Bonano is back to handle the kickoffs, and Hammerschmidt said the team will be adding a walk-on who can also kickoff and provide some depth at punter.

A few questions for Hammerschmidt:

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UA-UCLA game blog

Arizona coach Mike Stoops said after Saturday’s 27-13 victory over UCLA that starting running back Nic Grigsby and third-string back Greg Nwoko each suffered sprains of the AC shoulder joint during the game.

For Grigsby, it’s an aggravation of an injury he has been playing with for a few weeks. He left the game in the first half. Nwoko left the game late in the third quarter and had his left arm in a sling as he left the field.

“How severe, to what degree, I will know more next week,” Stoops said.

Second-string back Keola Antolin, who didn’t practice late in the week and didn’t play in the first half as he was trying to rest an ankle injury, came in during the second half. He rushed 16 times for 77 yards and made what offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes called the play of the game.

Antolin gained 11 yards on a draw on third-and-10 from the UCLA 36 in the third quarter. Arizona scored on a 25-yard catch-and-run by Juron Criner one play later for a 20-6 lead.

“He still has been bothered by that ankle, but that’s the best he has looked in a while,” Stoops said. “It was good. we needed him. We needed to run the football.”

Fourth-stringer Nick Booth added a 6-yard touchdown run with 34 seconds left in the third quarter for the game’s final points.

Dykes joked that maybe some of UA’s receivers can help at running back; UA did have good luck running several fly sweeps to its wideouts (a combined nine carries for 95 yards). But running back depth could really be an issue for the next game — vs. Washington State on Nov. 7 — and beyond.

Who is behind Booth on the depth chart?

“Open tryouts for running backs,” Dykes joked.

You have to go down to Kylan Butler and Daniel Jenkins, both of whom are true freshmen who are redshirting.

“Hopefully, we won’t get to that point,” Dykes said. “We’ll probably get those guys some reps this week and see who we feel is a little bit further along, and go from there.”

Elsewhere, quarterback Nick Foles was suffering from the flu, which helps explain his mixed night. He threw three interceptions — two on deflected passes — and made a bad handoff exchange with Nwoko for a lost fumble on the first play of the second half. In general, he just wasn’t quite as sharp.

He threw a lateral that linebacker Akeem Ayers broke up and safety Tony Dye scooped up for a touchdown on a fumble return. Dykes said Foles had the option to call a run or a pass on that play, and should have called a run based on the defense.

“We kind of made a bad decision,” Dykes said. “The thing is, we’ve run a thousand of those this year and he’s made the (right) decision probably 98 percent of the time.”

Dykes said Foles seemed to wear down as the game went on, although Foles’ other numbers don’t look bad — 22 of 34 for 247 yards and two touchdowns.

“Probably didn’t play as well as he has been up to this point, but at some point, he was going to have to come back to earth,” Dykes said. “Tonight, he did. It was humbling. The good thing is he was tough enough to overcome it and make enough plays for us to have a chance to win. The defense, obviously, played fantastic.”

Speaking of that defense, it was without starting defensive end Brooks Reed again. Reed has missed almost all of the past four games because of an ankle injury. D’Aundre Reed, who has been playing with a broken hand, started the game in Brooks Reed’s spot, but aggravted the injury and came out in favor of Apai Tuihalamaka.

Stoops said the goal is to get Brooks Reed healthy during the bye week and especially have him ready to go for a rugged finish to the season — at Cal, vs. Oregon, at ASU, at USC.

“We’re trying to get Brooks back to full strength,” Stoops said. “The back end of our schedule, there is a lot there.”

The word of the day is “freak.”

As in Arizona coach Mike Stoops saying several times Monday, referring to that play in last Saturday’s painful loss at Washington, “it was just a freak thing” or some variation thereof.

But that wasn’t the only freaky thing going on.

On Friday morning, senior defensive tackle Earl Mitchell was standing in a hallway at McKale Center. Someone called his name. He glanced. He started to turn his head back around. A door opened from the baseball locker room.

Bam!

The edge of the door hit him above the eye.

“It was pretty much just a freak accident,” Mitchell said Monday.

Freakish enough that he needed a couple of stitches in his eyebrow, and coaches worried about a head injury, so Mitchell didn’t travel with the team to Seattle later that day. That put the Wildcats down two starting defensive linemen — Mitchell and end Brooks Reed, who missed his second consecutive game with an ankle injury.

“It’s crazy. Real unfortunate,” Mitchell said. “The thing is, it could have happened to anybody. To be honest, I’m glad it happened to me rather than somebody else walking down the hallway.”

Arizona started Lolomana Mikaele at defensive tackle, with D’Aundre Reed starting at end. Defensive coordinator Mark Stoops revealed Monday that Reed suffered a broken hand during the game, but was out there at the end of the game because the line was “bare bones.”

D’Aundre Reed’s availability for Saturday isn’t yet known.

Mitchell said he was confident about playing this week, but Mike Stoops called Mitchell and Reed “kind of day to day.”

“Getting those two guys healthy will be a big factor in this game,” Stoops said, referring to an expected physical battle against Stanford and bull-dozing running back Toby Gerhart.

On the other side of UA’s line, starting left guard Conan Amituanai suffered a knee injury against Washington. “Hopefully, it’s just an MCL sprain,” Stoops said. If it is, Amituanai figures to be out 2-3 weeks. He was scheduled for an MRI exam this afternoon.

“At least we have some depth,” Stoops said.

The starting line figures to look like this: LT Phillip Garcia, LG Mike Diaz (moving from left tackle), C Colin Baxter, RG Herman Hall, RT Adam Grant.

Right guard Vaughn Dotsy is back from a concussion, so he could go into the lineup, with Hall moving to the right side for more mix-and-match possibilities.

Stoops said running backs Nic Grigsby and Keola Antolin were still “banged up” for the Washington game, leaving the bulk of the work to Greg Nwoko. More will be known about the status of Grigsby and Antolin later in the week.

At receiver, Bug Wright, who has missed two full games because of a knee injury, “should be back, hopefully,” Stoops said. Wright was scheduled to participate in some of practice this afternoon.

“He looked pretty good running at the end of the week last week,” Stoops said.