Aaron Altherr

**hongwei28** 11 сен 2018, 05:00

In the two-week run-up to the Super Bowl Orlando Brown Jr. Jersey , 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 favorite target, and he missed last season’s Super Bowl run after undergoing season-ending back surgery.

There was no update from the Patriots on Gronk’s status Monday, but he was at the facility for 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 Kareem Hunt Jersey , although their yards per play declined from 8.1 to 7.6.

The offense was also better without him on third down and in the red zone. Over the past two seasons it converted on 49.3 percent of its chances on third down and scored touchdowns on 66 percent of its red zone trips without him, compared to 45 percent on third down and scoring touchdowns on 62.6 percent of red zone trips when he 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 offense’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 postseason 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 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.

Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said there is always a plan to adapt to injuries.

”You have to make some adjustments. We always go into the game with a certain idea of how we want to try to play it,” he said. ”It certainly doesn’t always play out the way that you wanted it to or that you had hoped to or designed it to, but that happens in every game.

”So, everybody understands that that’s part of the game and when that happens, you just have to embrace whatever role you need to take on to help the team win.”

Brady still has stitches in his right thumb. He hopes to have them removed sometime this week Paul Hornung Jersey , and he doesn’t expect the injury to be an issue once Super Bowl week arrives.

”And then I can just get out there and get normal treatment like I always do and be ready to go,” Brady said.

”This was a little injury at the end of the day. … I mean, I’ve had a lot worse injuries than this. If this was on my left hand, I could care less, but just based on where it was, we had to deal with it.”

—

Danny Shelton always ended his interviews with a smile and saying, "Go Browns!"

It was the Browns turn to say, "Go Danny!"

New Cleveland general manager John Dorsey continued to wheel and deal on Saturday by agreeing to send Shelton, a former first-round draft pick, to the New England Patriots for a third-round pick in 2019 DeAndre Washington Jersey , a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.

Dorsey, who struck three major deals Friday, also sent a 2018 fifth-round pick to the Patriots, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because teams can't finalize trades until the new league year begins Wednesday.

Shelton is the latest first-round draft pick to be dumped by the Browns, whose inability to choose good players in recent years is at the heart of the team's woeful record. Cleveland went 0-16 last season and is an embarrassing 4-44 in the past three seasons.

Since 2010, the Browns have selected 13 players in the first round, and only four remain with the team.

Shelton was selected with the No. 12 overall pick in 2015. The 6-foot-2, 335-pounder, who starred in college at Washington, started 45 of 46 games in three seasons with Cleveland and the team seemed pleased with his progress against the run.

But he didn't make as many big plays as the team hoped and Shelton played out of position last season when Cleveland switched from a 3-4 defensive scheme to a 4-3 front and he was no longer playing over the center.

Shelton's departure may give more playing time to Larry Ogunjobi Jaleel Johnson Jersey , a third-round pick last year who made one start and finished with 32 tackles and a sack in 14 games.

Dorsey's remake of the Browns isn't over.

On Friday, he sent shockwaves across the NFL with three major deals, acquiring quarterback Tyrod Taylor from Buffalo, wide receiver Jarvis Landry from Miami and cornerback Damarious Randall from Green Bay. He also traded quarterback DeShone Kizer to the Packers, a move that could impact the Browns' plans in free agency and the upcoming draft.

Dorsey had been expected to target a veteran quarterback in free agency, but Taylor's arrival could change that unless Cleveland wants to bring in another experienced player to compete for the job. Either way, the Browns are likely to take a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft.

Dorsey's whirlwind of deals over the past two days may have been prompted by a concern that free agents would be afraid to sign with the Browns because of the team's struggles and constant turnover.

And while Dorsey has parted with three draft picks in the past two days, he has added talent without touching any of the five picks Cleveland has in the first two rounds this year.

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