The New England Patriots released a statement on Thursday night saying that tight end Rob Gronkowski (back surgery) is unlikely to play again this season:
Patriots just released this statement on Rob Gronkowski and the lung injury he suffered against the Seahawks. pic.twitter.com/nercqOwjUR
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 2, 2016
Despite this news, New England remains the team to beat in the AFC.
The loss of Gronk is huge; don’t get me wrong. But it’s not a dagger. The tight end has played in eight games this year, although two of which he barely played in due to injury (September 22nd vs. the Texans and November 27th vs. the Jets), and New England still won those games.
Let’s take an even closer look at Gronkowski’s six games that he did truly play in. In those six contests, the Pats were 4-2. Now let’s zoom out to the Patriots in the other five games they played. Well would you look at that, they are 5-0!
So what does this mean? New England is still really freaking good without the best tight end in the NFL.
A big reason why is Martellus Bennett, the team’s second-string tight end. Bennett is 10th among NFL tight ends with 42 receptions, and tied for seventh among tight ends in yards (540) and touchdowns (four). So, they still have an above average, starting caliber replacement for Gronk in Martellus Bennett.
On top of that, New England still has the best quarterback in the league in Tom Brady. Brady missed the first four games of the year for New England in which they went 3-1. Since his return, the Pats are 6-1. Due to missing four games, Brady is nowhere near the top of the leaderboards in the big quarterback categories, but he’s still been more than impressive: 68.4% completion percentage, 2,201 passing yards, 18 touchdowns, and just one lonely interception.
When it comes to overall team offense stats, they’re pretty darn good:
Points Per Game: 6th – 26.6
Yards Per Game: 6th – 386.2
Okay so Brady has been great at leading the offense. How has the defense been? Not bad at all:
Points Per Game: 3rd – 17.9
Yards Per Game: 14th – 353.2
Passing Yards Per Game: 18th – 253.6
Rushing Yards Per Game: 13th – 99.5
The Patriots will be more than fine because their offense is (still) fantastic and their defense is rock-solid. Oh and they have one heck of a head coach in Bill Belichick.
And looking around at the rest of the AFC, what teams are there to be particularly scared of? The Raiders are playing great football, but that’s a young group that has never been to the playoffs and have serious question marks on defense. The Broncos and Chiefs both appear to be good, not great teams. There are no teams two games over .500 in the AFC North and South.
So, while the loss of Gronk certainly makes the Patriots less dangerous, there’s no reason to think they shouldn’t still be considered the AFC favorites.
