Patriots’ Gronkowski to undergo back surgery

Gronk is reportedly dealing with a ruptured disk, and the surgery is expected to sideline him for about eight weeks, making a return even for the Superbowl far from guaranteed. He exited the game early, and was later diagnosed with a herniated disk.

Surgery would likely end Gronkowski’s season, although the team has not addressed the reports.

Take a look at how Gronkowski’s absence has affected Tom Brady since he joined the Patriots in 2011.

With Trevor Siemian beginning to come into his own, the Broncos offense has been showing signs of life.

Without Gronkowski, the Patriots now lack their most significant weapon, and the AFC race is now wide open. Denver has been able to shut down the Patriots with Gronkowski and now it will be extremely hard for New England to find any offense against that pass rush. Yes, they played the Jets much closer than they should have. A four-catch, 98-yard game against San Francisco in Week 11 included his first trip to the end zone as a professional.

Bart Scott also made a point to mention that the team already has the Pro-Bowl tight end’s replacement in Martellus Bennett. If not, no worries – this is still the Patriots.

He has missed 20 games in his career and played many others while not 100 percent. And most importantly they still have Brady, who remains an MVP front-runner and ranks No. 2 behind Dak Prescott in ESPN’s Total Quarterback Rating. “It’s not something that you want to deal with”.

Prior to missing Week 11 against the 49ers, Gronkowski led New England with 540 receiving yards and he still does lead the league with an average of 21.6 yards per reception. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport is reporting that the injury is a herniated disc. “It will be different on a play-to-play basis, but we’re just going to have to go out there and execute at a very high level”. This move means the team can not place Gronkowski back on the active roster once they place him on IR.