Rob Gronkowski increased his workload in Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills, but he was primarily used as a blocker. On a day where he was once again a non-factor in the passing game, it’s fair to wonder how much Gronk’s nagging hamstring injury is bothering him.
Appearing on the Patriots postgame show on CSN New England, Alber Breer of The MMQB said he believes Gronkowski catching just one pass is a serious concern.
“I think there’s some real reason for concern. This is a spot where they needed him,” Breer said. “We hear chapter and verse about how important division games are from Bill Belichick. It was a chance to bury one of the teams in your division and give yourself a three-game lead.
“You’ve got a rookie quarterback out there with a chance to do that. This is when you lean on a guy like Rob Gronkowski. The fact that they didn’t tells me there’s something else going on.”
The Patriots are clearly easing Gronkowski back, but why is it taking so long? The star tight end left a practice in the middle of August after tweaking his hamstring. There has been no indication that the injury was serious, yet here we are still talking about it in October.
Gronk has been as injury prone as he is dominant, which is why the Patriots are always careful with him. The fact that he has played the last two games would seem to indicate that he feels healthy. If Gronk still isn’t part of the game plan when Tom Brady returns next week, that could be a real issue.
For now, we’ll just have to see if any reporters dare to ask Bill Belichick if something’s wrong with Gronkowski. We know exactly the type of answer they are going to get.
