The New England Patriots will already be without suspended quarterback Tom Brady when they take on the Arizona Cardinals Sunday night, and it sounds like their second most important offensive player could wind up being limited.
Rob Gronkowski has been nursing a hamstring injury, and Mike Reiss of ESPN.com reports that the tight end is “still not 100 percent healthy.” Gronkowski took himself out of practice on Aug. 15 after coming up lame, and Reiss says he is still feeling some lingering effects from that injury.
Gronkowski is notoriously injury prone, and the Patriots have always been cautious with him because of it. He has not appeared in a preseason game since 2012.
When healthy, Gronk is arguably the most dominant player in the NFL. But his various ailments have led to a number of missed games throughout his career and others in which he was limited. From a personality standpoint, Gronkowski has seemed like the same old Gronk all summer. However, Patriots fans should be at least somewhat concerned about his lingering hamstring issue as we inch closer to Week 1.
