In a way, Rob Gronkowski owes a portion of his successes to Peyton Manning. During his playing career, the Indianapolis Colts quarterbacks spent a few days with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to swap secrets on the tricks of the trade.
It proved fruitful for the Patriots.
Brady left that period with an idea. Manning had showed Brady the “counter hot” offensive line protection which made for an advantageous situation in the passing game. Brady stole that concept and tweaked it for the Patriots offense. No player benefited more from it than Gronk.
“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.”
(Brady’s reflection is in the second video below.)
Bill Belichick was asked how hard it was to play against Peyton Manning, his response was that while it was hard, it wasn't as hard as facing @TomBrady at practice.
Brady then shared a story about Manning and how QBs learn from each other.pic.twitter.com/DcqLxZ9k10
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 28, 2019
Belichick, who was present for Brady’s session with NFL Network, interjected with some praise for the quarterback, who ran the play to perfection, too.
“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.
Belichick also laughed at Brady’s story because the coach has often reflected upon how much he’s enjoyed his time with Manning, particularly at the Pro Bowl in 2011 when they swapped information. But it seems Brady took more from his meeting than Belichick ever did.
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