Pittsburgh Steelers: 3 most dangerous threats in matchup with the Patriots

Rob Gronkowski

Is this even a question? It’s a given that this guy is one of the biggest threats for the Steelers’ defense.

Rob Gronkowski has torched the Steelers defense in many games past, including last December’s matchup. Now to be fair, Gronk has been a difficult matchup for just about every defense throughout his career. He is one of the greatest receiving tight ends of all time and the Steelers have not figured out a way to defend him in the past.

The ONLY optimistic thing about this season’s matchup is that Gronk has dealt with injuries all season long. He’s not the explosive player he used to be. But we really can’t hang our hats on that until we actually see it happen on the field.

If Gronk is finding his way to a clean bill of health recently, it only spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E trouble, trouble, trouble for the defense.

Gronk’s biggest area of attack is the middle of the field. The main players on the defense that cover that area are linebackers Vince Williams, Jon Bostic, and safeties Sean Davis, Terrell Edmunds, and Morgan Burnett. Given how this defense handled Jared Cook last week in Oakland, the Steelers will need to be a little more creative in defending the All-Pro tight end.