If you really sort of think about it, Rob Gronkowski owes a portion of his successes to Peyton Manning, even though they never played a game with each other.
During his playing career, the Indianapolis Colts quarterback spent a few days with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to talk about football and to basically swap secrets.
Brady recently stated how Manning showed him the “counter hot” offensive line protection made for an advantage situation in the passing game. Brady loved it, basically stole it and got it tweaked for the passing game for the Patriots.
Rob Gronkowski benefited the most.
“I swear to god, off of that action, we do a lot of things,” Brady said during an appearance on NFL Network for the NFL100 series. “We call that protection at least one or two times per game against them (the Colts). And Rob Gronkowski has probably 50 percent of his offensive production on that play. So, to use that play against them as well as have Rob become a dominant player in the league off that play is thanks to Peyton Manning.”
Belichick also interjected on the play.
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“But the play isn’t really sound. The protection isn’t really sound. It’s all on the quarterback to beat it and get (the ball) off,” Belichick said.
Manning has since retired while a 42-year-old Tom Brady is trying to get yet another Super Bowl ring.
