New England Patriots

Rob Gronkowski out against Dolphins

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Rob Gronkowski will not play in the Patriots’ Week 2 matchup against the Miami Dolphins.

The New England Patriots were able to beat the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1 despite not having Rob Gronkowski or Tom Brady. They will be asked to beat another team without both stars as Brady is in the second week of his suspension and Gronkowski is out with a hamstring injury. The game will begin at 1:00 PM EST and will be played in New England.

This is the second straight week Gronkowski has missed after injuring the hamstring Aug. 15 in a joint practice with the Chicago Bears.

Gronkowski participated in practice on a limited basis throughout the week. The Patriots listed him as questionable in their injury report Friday.

Martellus Bennett replaced Gronkowski as the starting tight end in Week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals and tallied three receptions for 14 yards on five targets.

Without Gronkowski, don’t start anyone on the Patriots offense except perhaps for Jimmy Garoppolo. Even then, there are definitely better options available. It’s hard to predict who the Patriots will go to on any given week, so that makes them frustrating players to have on your fantasy team.

Martellus Bennett isn’t a viable option because he hasn’t been effective so far. Granted, it has just been one week. But he wasn’t effective at all against the Cardinals. If you’re desperate though, he might be worth a flyer because the Dolphins defense isn’t as good as the Cardinals.

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Gronkowski is one of the NFL’s premier tight ends. He is also arguably the league’s most dangerous player inside of the red zone. In 80 career games (69 starts), Gronkowski has 380 receptions for 5,555 yards and 65 touchdowns. He had 72 receptions for 1,176 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in 15 games last season. The Dolphins lost in Week 1 to the Seattle Seahawks and could find themselves in an 0-2 hole if they don’t win today.