We’re Burying Rob Gronkowski Now?

I took a quick trip to the alternate universe known as Boston sports talk radio yesterday and heard that apparently Rob Gronkowski, with just one touchdown, is on death watch now. This was echoed on twitter where Mike Giardi was making some points like these:

Rob Gronkowski hasn’t scored TD since week 1. He’s gone a half dozen games without a score, the longest drought of his career. It shouldn’t be a surprise. Gronk hasn’t looked like himself for the better part of the seasonm dealing first with ankle and now back injuries #Patriots pic.twitter.com/JzNSbyOsBF

— Michael Giardi (@MikeGiardi) October 31, 2018

Gronk had moments where he moved well last night but he also had plays like this. No explosion. Labored. pic.twitter.com/czz24ar9IB

— Michael Giardi (@MikeGiardi) October 30, 2018

Yup, the guy who missed the game last week after HIS BACK LOCKED UP and has been dealing with an ankle injury since Week 3 looked labored early on in the very next game. Giardi mentions the injuries Gronk has experienced in his initial tweet, then asks a commenter if he thought Gronk’s stats would look like this. I don’t get it. How can you point out his injuries then call it a surprise his stats aren’t their usual dominant level? Would you be surprised if Gronk only had 29 catches through seven games, four of which came without Julian Edelman drawing any coverage, and two of those came also while dealing with the ankle injury? Is that a huge red flag? Personally, I’m just happy he’s not on IR and has plenty of time to get healthy before the playoffs.

He’s still catching 71.4 percent of his red zone targets, better than his career rate of 66.9 percent.

We have not seen a full power Gronk with a full power Patriots offense around him. They’ve still been able to make it work. They’re 4th in points-per-game and 7th in offensive DVOA. That’s how high the bar is now. Anything even close to outside the top-5 is Def Con 1. And again… 6-2!

Sometimes I think so much of the reaction to the 6-2 Patriots is cherry picking stats that aren’t up to the same often-astronomical level they might’ve been in the past and then making blanket judgments about the player and his future. Felger and Mazz couldn’t wait to connect the dots to Gronk not having a touchdown since week one to him missing voluntary workouts this offseason. We’ll just forget about what he did in that Week 1 game (7/123/ 1 TD).

I don’t deny these Patriots continue to be a work in progress but can we give Gronk a break before we start the “he’s in his ninth season, he’s slowing down, etc.” stuff?

Let’s take everything into account besides Gronk’s lengthy injury history. The lack of Edelman and the lack of a running game being the biggest pieces of that. Is anyone living under the illusion that every season won’t be about managing Gronk’s health? Even dinged up, Gronk still looked pretty good against Miami and Kansas City when the Pats were running a balanced offense. There’s no reason they can’t reproduce those results down the road.

Maybe the reasonable assessment is that the Patriots offense has gone through some changes this season. They lost 2017 focal points Danny Amendola and Dion Lewis. They’re just getting Edelman back up to speed after he sat the first four. They were just finding a stride when Sony Michel went down against Chicago. They’ve squeezed out the last two wins while only dressing two running backs. And yes, Rob Gronkowski has gotten dinged up already.

NFL football is the ultimate game of attrition and the regular season is as much about surviving as it is surviving. Everyone wants to crown Super Bowl champs in September and October but the road is still so long and treacherous from those early fall days.

There’s no secret that Gronk needs to be managed and protected, but to make blanket statements about the best tight end in history, about his offseason choices and his future at this point is foolish. As Edelman and Josh Gordon continue to assimilate and hopefully Michel returns, the entire Pats offense will make strides, perhaps climbing out of the non-top-three basement.

As everything elevates and Gronk gets over the early season ailments, we’ll get plenty more Gronk spikes. This year and more.