Rob Gronkowski Keeps Rolling as the Patriots' Offensive Pillar

It’s possible to become a little desensitized to greatness. It’s human even to watch the same dominance from an NFL player each week and take that generational talent for granted.

You see the same dazzling routine every Sunday, Monday or Thursday. So it might be difficult for someone like New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski to make you question the limits of what a large pass-catching man can do on a football field.

Together, let’s fight that suppressed respect for history if it’s out there. Because the legend of Gronkowski grows with each game and every rumble in the open field that ends with his unloading on a defensive back.

He either approaches or passes history often, which tends to happen when you’re piling up catches and yards at an unprecedented rate in just your age-27 season.

We did see more of the same from Gronkowski in that sense during a 27-16 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. It was the Patriots' third straight win and sixth victory overall. They improved to 6-1 and sit in a familiar midseason position atop the AFC.

For Gronkowski, though, the same means taking over a game during key moments. It means catching one deep pass for a touchdown and a second one to set up another six points.

Most of all, it means ascending another rung on a ladder toward becoming the all-time best at his position.

As ESPN Stats & Info noted, Gronkowski now owns a slice of Patriots history after his 36-yard TD catch in the third quarter Sunday that made the score 20-13 at the time, giving New England some much-needed breathing room:

Gronkowski tied former Patriots wide receiver Stanley Morgan for the most touchdown catches in franchise history.

Morgan had a stellar 13-year Patriots tenure. The four-time Pro Bowler finished his time in New England with 10,352 receiving yards and those 67 touchdowns, all coming by the age of 34.

That rightly makes him a franchise legend, too.

But here’s the ultimate “Whaaa?” moment when we compare Gronkowski to the man he just tied. Gronk is seven years younger than Morgan was by the time he reached the same milestone touchdown mark.

Gronkowski has also struggled through significant injury issues while playing as few as seven games in a season (2013). And yet in 2015, he still became the fastest tight end to reach the 60-touchdown plateau, needing only 70 games to get there.

But let’s not wistfully gaze back at the past just yet. We need to deal with the here and now. As Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus observed, Gronkowski’s repeated lumbering into the red zone has made for absurdly efficient scoring beyond any comparison just to Morgan or Patriots greats:

The name that glows there is Art Monk. And it’s true: The Washington Redskins' iconic receiver and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame played 16 seasons and 224 career games en route to recording his 68 touchdowns.

When his lone rushing touchdown is included, Gronkowski has tied Monk with only 85 games to his name.

He went the final mile in that journey Sunday while resuming his usual position as the motor driving the Patriots offense.

The four-time All-Pro missed the first two games of 2016 due to a hamstring injury. Then he was eased back at a glacial pace after his return in Week 3. He played a mere 14 snaps that week, according to Pro Football Focus, and then just 39 snaps in Week 4.

The real Gronkowski finally stood up in Week 5, which is when his three-game volcanic eruption began:

Week	Yards	Yards/catch	TDs
Week 5 (@CLE)	109	21.8	0
Week 6 (vs. CIN)	162	23.1	1
Week 7 (@PIT)	93	23.3	1

The math there adds up to 364 receiving yards. That’s an average of 121.3 yards per game, and he arrived there while averaging 22.8 yards per reception.

Gronkowski’s rapidly rising production hasn’t been a result of target volume or short-chunk gains. He has also recorded at least one 30-plus-yard catch over each of the past three games.

He essentially missed the first quarter of the Patriots’ 2016 schedule after being injured and then limited. And yet there he is sitting second on the tight end receiving yards leaderboard with Week 7 nearly complete.

The Patriots have proved no cog is greater than their machine. They did that by finishing quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension with a 3-1 record, which included winning a game started by third-string QB Jacoby Brissett.

But if there’s one piece of their foundation they can’t be without for a long period, it’s Gronkowski.

Prior to the 2016 season, Brady had a completion percentage of 57.3 when Gronkowski wasn't healthy, according to research done by Jared Dubin of CBSSports.com. That percentage skyrocketed to 65.2 when Gronkowski was functioning with all bones and muscles in one piece. Brady averaged 7.8 yards per attempt with Gronkowski, compared to 6.6 without him.

Gronkowski continues to be a pillar for everything the Patriots accomplish offensively. That includes outscoring their opponents by an average of 16.3 points during the past three games.

He keeps chugging ahead at a historic pace. And the rest of us should keep watching in awe as one of the best tight ends in league history bulldozes and spikes his way through the prime of an already record-setting career.