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For the most part, Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham have been two of the most dominant tight ends of their era. Though generally known for their productivity, both currently find themselves sidelined after a pair of injuries during Week 12 play. Whenever a player is carted off the field for a knee injury, the worst is always assumed by viewers.
In Graham’s case, his injury was pretty bad. Recent reports indicate that Graham suffered a torn patellar tendon against the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is the same injury that kept Victor Cruz from the field last season. He’s yet to have returned. He’ll need surgery and is probably done for the season. While football fans from all over the country hope Graham sees a speedy recovery, his production out on the field won’t be missed by many disappointed fantasy owners.
Simply put, this season has been a disappointing one in Seattle for Graham. With only 48 catches for 605 yards and two touchdowns, the standout tight end only managed to score double digit fantasy points in a standard fantasy league three times this year. Needless to say, hopefully next year will be better for Graham and the Seahawks.
On the flip side of things, it appears Gronkowski’s injury might be less severe than his on-field writhing initially indicated. If rumors and early reports prove true, Gronkowski hasn’t suffered a serious knee injury. More testing will take place on Monday, but for now, seeing as how Gronkowski has arguably been the strongest fantasy performer in the league thus far, it appears that fantasy owners can breathe easy.
Before exiting the Sunday night game against the Denver Broncos, Gronkowski had six catches for 88 yards and a touchdown on 10 Brady targets. Coming into the game, he’d caught 51 catches for a total of 843 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. In case you weren’t counting, such play has resulted in double digit fantasy points in eight of the the New England Patriots’ last 11 games, including last night.
Yes, fantasy owners will desperately miss Gronkowski for as long as he’s out, but their pain pales in comparison to that of Tom Brady’s. Now playing without the likes of Dion Lewis, Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola and Rob Gronkowski, someone else will need to step up to fill the receiving void for the Patriots.
