It’s official. After receiving a bone crushing hit from Seattle’s Earl Thomas on Sunday night, Rob Gronkowski did not make the trip to San Francisco and is now declared out for Sunday.
We kinda knew all along that Gronk would be out for Week 11 once NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted on Monday night that he indeed suffered a punctured lung, but it was finally confirmed once the Patriots boarded their team flight on Friday afternoon, without their star tight end.
#Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski (perforated lung) is not on the plane as the team is set to fly to SF, source said. He’s out vs. the #49ers.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 18, 2016
From a fantasy standpoint, we already filled you in on our thoughts. It will most likely be a LeGarrette Blount game on the ground — against that pitiful rush defense — and expect Julian Edelman and Martellus Bennett to shine with #87 not around. I would bet on a 2014-esque Edelman game, where he gets double digit receptions and finds the end zone. Chris Hogan has also been declared out, so that only boosts Edelman, Bennett and possibly *Dion Lewis in the passing game.
If you own Gronk and dropped your TE2; Eric Ebron (67% owned), C.J. Fiedorowicz (20%), Julius Thomas (62%) would be solid additions. If you want to take a dice roll, stream Ladarius Green (12%).
Rapoport initially said that Gronkowski would only miss one game, so we’ll keep you updated on his status for next week’s game against the Jets. One thing that could hold him back is that he has yet to be cleared to fly — which goes hand-in-hand with a lung injury. If he is unable to fly next week, Gronk needs to call up his buddy ‘Goon’ to fire up the Gronk Party Bus and get to East Rutherford for Sunday.
* Being the investigator I am, I noticed that when the @Patriots Twitter account tweeted out pictures of some of the players boarding the flight to San Francisco, a certain little running back was in attendance *inserts ‘thinking’ emoji*
Heading west for #NEvsSF. pic.twitter.com/DoikGzDxHV
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 18, 2016
