The injury to Rob Gronkowski is a big deal for the New England Patriots. That goes without saying. He’s the second best player on the team, even when they’re at full strength. Hell, he’s the best tight end to ever play the game. But even a temporary absence by the man known as Gronk is not a death sentence for the defending champions.

As long as the Patriots have Tom Brady, everything’s going to be fine. I should probably preface this be explicitly stating that I am not a Pats fan. More than anything, I’m a gambler and a football fan (probably in that order).

You can’t replace Gronkowski, but you can certainly evolve in reaction to his injury. I’m not here to discuss x’s and o’s. You just have to look at the history of the Patriots in the Belichik era. They’ve gone from dink-and-dunk, to steamrolling the football with a clock killer, to bombing it out with Moss and back to dinking it…all under the watchful eye of Tom Brady.

In other words, the Patriots have been masterful at adapting to the circumstances of their team because Brady is the truest sense of a transcendent quarterback. He makes everyone around him better.