I am not saying that he was as much of a receiving threat as in every other season. But his value goes far beyond that. This is also the reason why people completely overvalue a player like Kelce or Graham. They are truly defined by their fantasy level stats because that is pretty much most of the impact they have on the game.
You keep talking about him as if the receiving aspect of his game is what made him a HoF player when in reality its all the other things he was enabling the team to do what made him so unique. And those things he was still doing last year.
Again you keep talking about him as a receiving threat when my point was something entirely different. Only his presence on the field in 22 gave the Rams difficulty in deciding how to handle their own personnel. With a lesser blocker or receiver as TE on the field the Rams will have less headaches deciding between base and sub in this situation and all of this might play out differently.
You focus too much on the plays where he touched the ball and not enough on all other plays where his presence affected the opponents approach.
What teams had to defend was a big slow guy with great hands. He wasn't demanding some manner of double coverage on EVERY play.
I don't think you will even get the passes to Edelman in the middle without Gronk being someone for Wade to consider. Again I think you are missing how much of an impact he had on plays where he is not even touching the ball.
Now as I have been saying through the offseason I don't think this means that the offense is in deep trouble. They will have to evolve into something new instead of falling into the trap of trying to fill the void left behind by a HoF player.
Clearly you must have written this for the sake of arguing a weak position and gong down with the ship, because NONE it makes any sense
First I made a POINT of specifically mentioning that Gronk's work in the other aspects of a TE's job was important. You either missed it or ignored it. My purpose was to question the "common wisdom" that the Pats
pass offense is in trouble with Gronk's retirement.. BTW- Telling a good Pats fan your weak Kelce analogy is just insulting. It's like patting yourself on the back for pointing out the sun will rise in the East tomorrow. Thanks for the lesson.
Your comment about the 22 makes me question your understanding of what Josh did with this adjustment. Now I know you know this, because you've shown your knowledge on this kind of topic many times. But indulge me in this. The Pats ran their 22 personnel package all year long. They ran during this game. It was NOTHING new. What was new was they spread out the "heavy personnel".
When the Rams saw who was on the field they naturally had their run defensive people on the field. That meant the Rams had 3 LB's and only 4 DB's on the field expecting some sort of run formation. Instead when they broke their huddle they found that same personnel package lined up 5 wide.
When the Pats spread those people out 5 wide with Allen wide, Devlin in the slot on one side, then Burkhead on the outside and Gronk in the slot on the other with Edelman starting inside Gronk and motioning to the Allen side. The 2 outside routes were short hooks. Gronk and Devlin ran seam routes and Edelman crossed underneath (and he was wide open again, btw)
But even though the LB started 2 steps behind on the play and Gronk got a free release, the LB had recovered to point where he was able to pull at Gronk's arm before the ball got there. The 2 other defenders that surrounded Gronk were the Safety and the CB who had been covering Burkhead and read the play so well he was only a step away from making a great recovery.
Yet it was to no avail because Brady threw a great ball and Gronk was strong enough to rip his arm away to make a good catch.
By the time this play happened, the Rams were beginning to hone in on it. Maybe Wade didn't change his personnel because he felt his LB could cover Gronk (He wasn't wrong) What he didn't expect was that his LB would bust on his assignment by starting out going with the motion. And he STILL was just inches from making the play. Imagine if he hadn't given Gronk that 2 step lead.
But lets get back to the REAL point. My supposition was that Gronk's retirement was NOT going to affect the Pats passing game, nearly as much as the "common wisdom" says it will. I never said I was right, just opened up the possibility and giving some data to back up my point.
This long and obviously drawn out response isn't to rebuke you for disagreeing with me on my supposition, but rather the examples you use to make your point. I would have expected better from you.
We are losing what might be the best TE ever to play in the league. Of COURSE there is going to be an impact. The issue is "how much" of one. I stand by my position of "less than you think".
