Patriots’ top players hope to heal for Super Bowl

Brady, Gronkowski on mend from injuries

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — In the two-week run-up to the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots will face plenty of questions about two things critical to the team’s success: Tom Brady’s right hand and Rob Gronkowski’s head.

Brady answered most of the concerns about whether the hand injury would hinder him with a strong performance in New England’s AFC championship game victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Gronkowski, meanwhile, will likely spend at least part of this week going through the concussion protocol. He suffered the injury on a helmet-to-helmet hit from Jacksonville safety Barry Church.

The game-changing tight end is Brady’s favourite target, and he missed last season’s Super Bowl run after undergoing back surgery.

There was no update from the Patriots on Gronk’s status Monday, but he did attend team meetings.

“He was in pretty good spirits today when I spoke to him,” special teams captain Matt Slater said.

Recently, New England has fared well when Gronkowski has been sidelined. But that hasn’t always been the case.

The Patriots had plenty of time to adjust to his absence in 2016, when he played just eight games before the surgery. They also had Martellus Bennett to pick up the slack. Since the start of last season, New England is 12-1 without Gronk. In those games, the Patriots’ points per game actually increased from 28.6 to 28.8, although their yards per play declined from 8.1 to 7.6.

The offence was also better without him on third down and in the red zone.

Over the past two seasons, it converted on 49.3 per cent of its chances on third down and scored touchdowns on 66 per cent of its red-zone trips without him, compared to 45 per cent on third down and scoring TDs on 62.6 per cent of red-zone trips when Gronkowski played.

From his rookie season in 2010 through 2015, his absence had a much greater impact.

The Patriots were 12-7 without Gronkowski over that span, averaging 31.5 points per game with him and 26.3 without him. The offence’s average yards per pass attempt also fell from 7.8 with him to 6.6 without him.

Before he was injured, Gronkowski passed Dallas Clark to become the NFL’s career leader for post-season yards at the position. And if the concussion were to sideline him for the Super Bowl, there’s not much depth behind him. The only other tight ends on New England’s roster are Dwayne Allen and Jacob Hollister.

Allen has 10 receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown this season. Hollister has four catches for 42 yards and was inactive against Jacksonville.