A long article on trying to defend GRONK

It's Time for the NFL to Remember What It Means to Get Gronked

Yes, it's Bleacher Report, but it's good.

I'll give you one amazing line from it:

This single hit on Sept. 29, 2007, doomed Jackson's [NFL] career.

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One of the best football articles I've read in a long time

Honestly, after awhile I just skimmed it. Comments after were far more entertaining and interesting! Now, those made me laugh my ass off.

Thing is, we are about to see a whole new Gronk and a Edelman etc. for years I've been saying they need a consistent elite deep threat to augment the offense to draw coverage away from the underneath. Is Cooks Randy Moss? No. But he is an elite deep threat and home run hitter that requires..no it demands safeties to behave themselves or pay the price.

Gronk will be legit one on one against LBers and safety's with zero/minimal help over the top.

Play action with Cooks on the field? Yeah.

ViperGTS said:

Thing is, we are about to see a whole new Gronk and a Edelman etc. for years I've been saying they need a consistent elite deep threat to augment the offense to draw coverage away from the underneath. Is Cooks Randy Moss? No. But he is an elite deep threat and home run hitter that requires..no it demands safeties to behave themselves or pay the price.

Gronk will be legit one on one against LBers and safety's with zero/minimal help over the top.

Play action with Cooks on the field? Yeah.

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OTOH, Gronk has been, more or less, a "deep threat" for the Pats since he arrived. He and Hogan even led the league in ypc in 2016.

maineman209 said:

OTOH, Gronk has been, more or less, a "deep threat" for the Pats since he arrived. He and Hogan even led the league in ypc in 2016.

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Yep, and he is doing that even with the defense rotating two or three defenders to stop him.

Is anyone else as excited as I am to see the following line up in 11 personnel:

Cooks out wide, Gronk in tight, Lewis in the backfield, Edelman in the slot and Hogan on the boundary with Brady under center.

If the defense stays in base, Gronk and Lewis go wide, dragging linebackers with them and they run four verticals...
If the defense goes nickel, the Patriots win on talent
If the defense goes dime, the Patriots run 6v6 in a light box

There are no good choices to make for a defense unless they have two linebackers or safety/linebacker hybrids that can both play the run and match man to man against Lewis and Gronk. The secondary is already pre-occupied with the three receivers.

I'm confused. Why does Gronk need defending?