Wow, Jeremy Lane contributing to the Q&A this week, thanks for taking some time off from your Super Bowl prep to ask!
Look, you can take ANY player out of the game if you’re willing to devote enough resources to it. The problem is that it then leaves guys like Edelman and LaFell with one-on-one matchups, not to mention Shane Vereen out of the backfield. Those three combined for 167 yards receiving against the Colts.
The problem with Gronk is in the red zone because, as you’re aware, he’s caught a historic amount of touchdowns in his first five seasons, despite missing time with injuries.
So yeah, you want to devote 2 or 3 guys to covering him in between the 20s, you can hold him to pedestrian numbers, but that’s not quite as easy in the red zone where the Pats have ways of isolating Gronk on a defensive back, making double coverage extremely tough.
So if Seattle wants to send Kam Chancellor out wide to cover him that’s fine, it takes their biggest box presence out of the box.
How many times have we seen him inside the 10 split out wide, make one move and then catch a touchdown where the defensive back can’t even reach? That’s the biggest problem with Gronk and I’m not sure there’s any way to stop it.