New England Patriots

Tom Brady explains why Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett are unstoppable together

Published Nov. 15, 2016 1:57 p.m. ET

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Andrew Lynch

Here's a stat that should terrify the rest of the NFL: According to Football Outsiders, the New England Patriots have the No. 1 ranked passing offense in the league. This despite missing Tom Brady for the first four weeks of the season and having to start Jacoby Brissett for two of those four games.

Now that Brady is back, the Patriots' air attack is set to reach incredible heights. Just ask the Cleveland Browns, who watched as Brady threw three TD passes to TE Martellus Bennett in Week 5. Of course, the offseason addition of Bennett is part of why the Patriots' passing game is so dominant this season. It's almost unfair that New England can line up both the 2014 Pro Bowl tight end and that Rob Gronkowski guy. And Brady recognizes his embarrassment of TE riches.

Via Boston.com:

I was saying the other day, Martellus has been so productive, being here for such a short time. Gronk, what he did last week and him kind of getting back to where he wants to be is such a big part of our offense because those guys are so dynamic. They’re tough match-ups, they’re both 6-foot-6-plus, 270-pounds-plus. They’re hard match-ups for anybody because they’re just very unique players. It’s great because like on the touchdown to Martellus, one of them, they focused all their coverage on Gronk, and then Martellus gets the one-on-one and he gets the ball. Again, that’s what makes a good offense. If they’re going to double cover someone, it means other guys have single coverage. If you’re playing with a guy like Gronk, it’s great for you because you’re not the one getting double covered, so you’ll have opportunities and you have to take advantage of the opportunities when you get them.

To add to the deception, the Patriots have largely used Gronkowski as a run blocker in the first few weeks of the season. So when teams dedicate a second defender to Gronk, they're making an even bigger mistake since he's not actually running routes -- for now, anyway.

As Gronkowski continues to recover from a hamstring injury that limited him to start the season, he'll probably become a bigger part of the Patriots passing game and will see more and more double-teams. After all, he's the one with the name recognition. Yet in part because of those double-teams on Gronk (and because of the injuries, of course), Bennett has been the second-most productive fantasy tight end in the league this year, trailing only Greg Olsen. For the season, Bennett has 21 catches (on 28 targets) for 314 yards and 4 TDs.

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