Gronk......$54 million man (1 Viewer)

[Borden]

In the Gronk versus Hernandez discussion (redraft I assuming since no one is giving up Gronk) I think it depends on where you're picking and how deep you feel RB is. If you take Gronk in the first 2 rows who is coming back to you? What is better getting Gronk and a time share back or Hernandez and a feature back?

The big question is whether Hernandez will be as featured as he was last year. The Patriots have a legitimate deep threat now in Brandon Lloyd, and he factors in. Something has to give. I'm still high on Hernandez so that doesn't bother me, but Gronk was demonstrably better than Hernandez last year and is a big focal point of the team. I see Gronk and Jimmy Graham in their own TE tier, and don't view anyone else as that close.

Nobody can dispute that it's Gronk and Graham, a huge gap, then the next teir. However, is that gap big enough to outweigh the gap between what you're giving up by passing on a feature and which ever RB you can pick up later in the draft? Honest question because there seems to be a big drop off a running back too.As far as Hernandez goes... I don't know. If the pats defense can be good enough that Brady doesn't need to score every time he gets the ball? Can Brady do enough to keep Lloyd, Welker, and Gronk happy? Do the Pats continue to use 2 and 3 tight end sets? Do they run the ball more this year? Or does Hernandez become the open target with defenses having to focus on the other three pass catchers? I believe that this new deal shows who the pats think is their number 1 but as far as fantasy football goes drafting Mr. Gronkowski in the late first or early second might be a little high.

 

[Kool-Aid Larry]

it's not generally an issue of whether they NEED to score, with the pats -- they generally feel their job is to score every time the offense takes the field.

if the defense is good it might just mean even more offense as the opposing offense will be giving them extra possessions through turnovers and punts, they'll get better field position, etc.

if you take a look at the record setting 2007 team, they ranked 5th in the league in pass attempts at nearly 600, while still ranking 9th in rush attempts -- and this is with a top 5 defense in points and yards allowed.

they can continue to use multiple te sets, but if hernandez gets used as a receiver it's kind of semantics.

a lot of people are trying to divide up last year's pie so lloyd gets his slice, but just bear in mind the '07 team scored about 10 more td's than last year's team.

also, if it matters to anybody, we get the nfc west and afc south this year (plus @bal and v den)

another thing to consider is the possible impact light's retirement has on gronk's production --- will he be used more as an extra o-lineman, running fewer routes, with the addition of lloyd and subtraction of light?

ps

last year gronk put up 15/217/4 on a buffalo team that just added mario williams at left end.

edit:

light missed the second miami game last year, so I checked the stats, and it looks like gronk's stat line was pretty similar between both games, if that means anything.

I think profootballfocus tracks routes run, but it's probably subscriber info, although I think they have some kind of weekly article recap.

maybe you just get more routes like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhamDo7F9yI

(gronk on far right, suggs on ground)

 

[Hooper31]

54 million... and playing for a winner

I can't decided which is dumber. The media for reporting the $54,000,000 number, or fans for repeating it?