Gronkowski: Would You Have Him Protect Himself More?

joepatsfan said:

You cannot stop Gronk from being Gronk.
His size/ability is a blessing and a curse.

Its awesome to see him play in the seam and run by DBs but the problem with him being around DBs all the time is he's twice their size so he will take 2-3 hits per catch just to get down, and that's not even when he's in gronk mode (a la Skins game while back). The guy is going to take hits on hits every play. You just gotta hope that Gronk doesn't take a headshot or TJ Ward shot.

We need him. If he was 100% in SB46 we win. If he was healthy the last two postseasons different story too. We can get to the AFCCG without him, this year, with Revis we can even get to the SB without him but to beat an NFC D (SF or SEA) we NEED him to be 100% for the SB

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If Gronk learns to get compact and dish out hits, believe me, no cornerback is going to be lining up to take a shot. Watch the great running backs, they learned how to use their bodies, not expose their bodies.

I'd really hope that Gronk, given his lifestyle, uses any and all the protection available to him

RayClay said:

For all the let Gronk be gronk's...all running backs need to adapt their style to protect the ball and themselves by running aware of when they are open and when they expect contact. The ones who succeed become better players. It's not about being timid, it's about getting compact and bringing your limbs and head in at times, running wide open when it's safe. You actually are more of a weapon that way too.

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So what was he supposed to do on the play where he tore his ACL?

No longer being operated-on by Tom Gill is a good start.

Sciz said:

So what was he supposed to do on the play where he tore his ACL?

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I'm responding to the thread title, not a particular injury. There's no doubt in my mind he's been lucky to avoid other debilitating injuries and could improve his overall performance while protecting himself better by using his body more wisely.

RayClay said:

I'm responding to the thread title, not a particular injury. There's no doubt in my mind he's been lucky to avoid other debilitating injuries and could improve his overall performance while protecting himself better by using his body more wisely.

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To answer your question, there isn't much you can do having just caught the ball with a hit like that. Faulk was very light on his feet and seemed to have a sixth sense about catching and evading, but that was his strength and he ran much differently than Gronk. I'm thinking about when he's running in the open field or near the end zone.

People forget that Gronk went 2 2/3 years without missing a game.

His first major injury was on a PAT play, not him catching the ball in the open field. How would him altering his game have prevented that injury? And when do people get serious injuries on PAT attempts.

Even when he rebroke his arm, odds are good that if he didn't have a plate in his arm, he would have been fine. All he did was go up for a pass that was a little bit high and fell to the ground trying to get it. You see receivers trying to make catches like that all the time.

And even when he tore his ACL and suffered a sprained ankle in the AFCCG, he was running free in the open field and the defenders just tackled him low. Do you really want Gronk to catch the ball and go down with no one around him?

Gronk plays recklessly at times, but the ironic thing is pretty much all of his major injuries were not on plays when Gronk was playing recklessly. He has never been injured going up for a ball with three guy all over him or when he sees a defender ready to lay wood a second after he catches the ball. Some of his most reckless plays when you think he may be dead, he gets up and walks back into the huddle.

Rob0729 said:

Do you really want Gronk to catch the ball and go down with no one around him?

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I think we are all suggesting that he should go down when covered or some instant before the hit, not going for it.

Rob0729 said:

Gronk plays recklessly at times, but the ironic thing is pretty much all of his major injuries were not on plays when Gronk was playing recklessly. He has never been injured going up for a ball with three guy all over him or when he sees a defender ready to lay wood a second after he catches the ball. Some of his most reckless plays when you think he may be dead, he gets up and walks back into the huddle.

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That's more a coincidence than anything, playing recklessly is not the way to go, it only takes one hit to invalid this theory, someday he's gonna pay that bill if he keeps playing that way, actually I think he's already paying as I disagree with the bold text. Anyone who has been on sports develops this radar, I think in english the term is visual spatial ability, whatever, an elite athlete like Gronk who plays a sport in full speed, that demands a lot of accuracy and fast reactions, develops this into a much higher level, he was totally aware of Ward coming.

varjao said:

I think we are all suggesting that he should go down when covered or some instant before the hit, not going for it.

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I'm not suggesting that at all. There are ways to cover up, deliver the hit, then maybe straighten up after. He's a huge guy. If he goes after these cornerbacks like a running back would, getting compact, pulling his arms in and delivering a concentrated hit, no cornerback is going to want a piece of that. Maybe he goes down, maybe he bounces off and continues his run.

He just runs through things like there's nobody there. You can prepare to hit, prepare to fall safely etc. He just needs to work on it.

All I know is, they NEED him if they want to beat Denver and then Seattle/SF. Brady, Gronk, Revis, and relative health from the others (meaning Wilfork AND Kelly not going on IR). It wouldn't hurt to have him dial it down just a little. They'll still score 27+ PPG which should be enough with this defense.

varjao said:

I think we are all suggesting that he should go down when covered or some instant before the hit, not going for it.



That's more a coincidence than anything, playing recklessly is not the way to go, it only takes one hit to invalid this theory, someday he's gonna pay that bill if he keeps playing that way, actually I think he's already paying as I disagree with the bold text. Anyone who has been on sports develops this radar, I think in english the term is visual spatial ability, whatever, an elite athlete like Gronk who plays a sport in full speed, that demands a lot of accuracy and fast reactions, develops this into a much higher level, he was totally aware of Ward coming.

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Whether it is a coincidence or not, Gronk has never had a significant injury in the Pros from playing recklessly. Every single one of his injuries were on plays where he wasn't being reckless.

I don't know how you can disagree with the bolded part since I was speaking to fact. Gronk has never had a significant injury where he was hit by a receiver right after he caught the ball when he went up for the ball and knew he was going to be hit right when he caught the ball.

The Ward injury could have happened to any receiver in the league. Ward was a good 5-10 yards away from Gronk when he caught the ball and Gronk had a wide open space in front of him (Ward was off in front of him to his right). Gronk took three steps before Ward hit him. That wasn't a reckless play at all.

And he wasn't totally aware Ward was coming. If you look at the replay, he was looking back when he caught the ball and running at full speed when he turned around, it made it impossible for him to do anything but keep running.

Ward just hit Gronk low. That is the difference between that play and about a dozen other plays in that game.

RayClay said:

I'm not suggesting that at all. There are ways to cover up, deliver the hit, then maybe straighten up after. He's a huge guy. If he goes after these cornerbacks like a running back would, getting compact, pulling his arms in and delivering a concentrated hit, no cornerback is going to want a piece of that. Maybe he goes down, maybe he bounces off and continues his run.

He just runs through things like there's nobody there. You can prepare to hit, prepare to fall safely etc. He just needs to work on it.

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I agree at times he needs to protect his body more. But when you look at the Pollard and Ward hits, there was little Gronk could have done. When a defender dives at a receiver's lower legs, there is little they can do to defend that.

Preserve the Gronk....save him for the red zone, at least during the regular season. His absence crushed the offense's red zone efficiency. NE dropped from a 67% Red Zone TD rate in '12 to 58% last year. NE proved it could move the ball between the 20's last year and get into the red zone (ranked #2 in red zone scoring opportunities with 4.1 red zone scoring attempts/game), they just couldn't create TDs . Field goals made/game jumped from 1.8 in '12 to 2.1 in '13.

I agree with Rob for the most part: Gronk happened to be at the wrong place at the exact, precise, wrong time when his latest injury happened. He applied the most weight on his foot at the moment that Ward hit him. Had he been in the process of either landing or jumping, the damage would likely have been less severe. League HQ really needs to address these types of hits by making it a Person Foul penalty for lunging helmet-first at or below an opponent's knees, whether while attempting to tackle or block. Examples from both sides of the LOS: Ward v Gronk 2013, and Wade v Harrison 2006. Both injuries were the beginnings of the ends of each of their respective seasons.

The only play, resulting in an injury, that I considered reckless was the forearm re-injury in the POs v Houston. Two weeks after appearing very tentative v Miami during his first game since breaking it v Indy, the first play called for Gronk should not have been a long pattern down the sideline after which the chances of going, then falling, out of bounds were pretty damn good. That was reckless play-calling and reckless execution.

The problem is that when you tell a guy to play scared, you end up increasing his chances of being hurt and not decreasing them. He isn't a QB so it isn't like he is going to slide in the open field. Other than maybe scooting out of bounds instead of taking a hit, I just don't see that there is much you can do.

KontradictioN said:

I'd like him to go down and/or hurdle in the instances when he can do those things, and keep going/break tackles in the instances when he can do that. That's all up to him to know, though. Unfortunately, his playing style (while fun to watch) makes him injury prone. Since, short of a epiphany, he probably won't change that style, he'll probably continue to get banged up.

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I think Kontra wraps it up pretty nicely. He plays with reckless abandon, at least in some form anyway.

Oh common, are we talking about a guy who got injured on the EP play? He will get injured by the time of January anyway.

mgcolby said:

I haven't read a single post in this thread. Do to recent personal experiences, I feel the need to share. I am a youth football coach and we fielded a spring tackle football team in a league based out of Richmond, VA. Too make a long story short, my son was a top 2 player on the team. He broke his ankle in the last two minutes of the final game of the regular season on a meaningless carry, but he kept pushing after the initial contact to get extra yards. He had surgery a week later, he is 13, the doc put a screw in his ankle. Not to be anything but an unbiased coach, my son is a special breed, he is good, to be humble. But I am concerned about how he will react to the screw, he feels it every time he moves and I'm not sure he will have the same confidence on it come September that he had two weeks ago.

To make a long story short...who the **** are any of you to question Gronks health, commitment or confidence in his own body?

Get over your own penciled **** necks self and let the man get healthy.

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Good example of why you should read posts before you respond to them.

RayClay said:

Good example of why you should read posts before you respond to them.

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Or a better lesson don't drink and post

Unfortunately his aggressiveness is what makes him so awesome. I say he should live by the Gronk and die by the Gronk come playoff time.