Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski Scheduled For Fourth Surgery Next Week

New England Patriots star tight end Rob Gronkowski is scheduled to be seen by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jesse Jupiter next week to determine if the staph infection that has been plaguing his surgically repaired forearm.

According to the Boston Globe, Gronkowski is wrapping up a course of antibiotics and will be re-examined afterwards to determine if the infection has sufficiently cleared. If the infection has cleared, Dr. Jupiter will replace the hardware and Gronk will officially begin the road to recovery.

According to reports, recovery is slated to last roughly 11 weeks, which puts Gronk on pace to return in early-to-mid August (assuming surgery is done at the end of next week), which would be during training camp and have him ready for the start of the season. Obviously, this is assuming that he suffers no setbacks and has a very smooth, clean recovery.

Rob Gronkowski is catching heat from local media

The events surrounding the Super Bowl may be the worst thing for New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

For each of the past two years he has been injured in or around the big game.

And for each of the past two years he has risked further injury by partying a bit to hard during post-game festivities.

The Patriots could not have been delighted to catch a screening of the TMZ video of him wrestling in a nightclub and landing on the same forearm that he injured twice this NFL season.

The local media certainly is not as Boston Herald writer Karen Guregian more or less put it out there that its time for him to calm down.

A Different Breed

The emergence of Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham over the past two and a half seasons has turned the tight end position into an all out rat race.  If you don’t own either of these players, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  They’re a matchup nightmare on a weekly basis.  If you do own one of these guys, you just smile from ear to ear every week.  It’s virtually a lock you’re going to win that matchup (unless you’re up against Tony Gonzalez or Jason Witten this season).  What a great luxury piece to own, and they’re both so young. I think the thing that impresses me the most about Gronk and Graham is how fast their game translated to the NFL – it’s unparalleled.

If you were to ask most dynasty enthusiasts what position takes the longest to develop, what would the most common answer be?  Probably quarterback.  It’s a common misconception amongst dynasty coaches everywhere.  From what I’ve seen over the better part of a decade, that’s not the case.  The tight end position takes longer than any other to develop and it’s not even close.

Tight ends typically don’t fit into the “norm” as far a player development goes.  For other positions like running back, wide receiver, and in most cases quarterback, player development is usually somewhere in the 2-3 year range.  From what I’ve seen in my time as a dynasty owner I’ve found that tight end development usually takes anywhere from 3-5 years before they reach fantasy relevance, sometimes longer, and in some cases (just like every other position), never.

Which leads me to my next question – what’s the point of ever investing a first round pick on a tight end, even if it’s your greatest team need?  The chances of them being on your roster by the time they are relevant is highly unlikely.  Tight ends are probably the most recycled commodity on the waiver wire. 

Belichick Responds To Gronk Injury, Says Football Players Play Football

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is catching a heap of criticism, for having tight end Rob Gronkowski in the ball game, on the field goal unit, with the Pats up by a ton.

Gronkowski suffered a broken forearm on the play, and is expected to miss close to a month.

Belichick was on the radio this morning with WEEI, and addressed the critics, and spoke about why Gronk was in the game via ESPN Boston.

“We’ve seen those games in the NFL every year, teams that have a lead — you can go back to the Indianapolis-Tampa game when they scored like 24 points in four minutes,” he said, via Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com. “The Buffalo-Houston playoff game where it’s 35-0 at halftime and you lose 38-35, whatever it was. It doesn’t take much in this league. Teams can score quickly. Turnovers. I think you just keep playing. At some point, there is a point [but] then you only have so many players, so somebody has to play.
“I think you have to be careful when you are trying to run a team to go up to one guy and say, ‘Michael, we’re going to leave you in the game because we don’t really care about you, but Glenn, we’re going to take you out because you’re really important.’ I don’t think that’s really a good way to approach a team. I’ve never done that. I don’t think that would be a very successful approach to it.”

I don’t know about that one Bill.  Best tight end in the game, I’m sure you could have found someone to play and block that edge.

Robert Littal

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Report: Rob Gronkowski suffers broken forearm

There may not be any Gronk spikes for the foreseeable future.

Citing a source, Tom Curran of Comcast SportsNet New England reports that Rob Gronkowski suffered a broken forearm in Sunday’s 59-24 thrashing of the Colts.

The All-Pro tight end, who recorded seven catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns, exited late in the fourth quarter to undergo X-rays, and didn’t meet with the media after the game.

Gronkowski has dealt with a nagging hip injury this season, but continued to play through the pain.

Assuming tests reveal a fracture, the 23-year-old would almost certainly miss considerable time, potentially crippling an offense that’s still without tight end Aaron Hernandez.