Looking for Gronkowski vs. Ramsey one-on-one Sunday? Don't hold your breath

FOXBOROUGH — If you’re thinking the prospect of a Rob Gronkowski-Jalen Ramsey, one-on-one duel for the ages Sunday is too good to be true, you’re probably right. At least if the Jaguars go about utilizing Ramsey in the same fashion they did the last time these two teams met.

Based on some of Ramsey’s offseason comments, this is the matchup everyone is hoping for. And it sounds like the two are self-aware enough to know it’s what everyone wants to see. On Thursday, Ramsey was asked about Gronkowski and his offseason comments about the tight end. It sounds like Ramsey — who has no shortage of opinions — kinda sorta walked his more incendiary statements, but not by a lot.

“He’s good now,” Ramsey said of Gronkowski. “Don’t get it twisted. But you’re saying this like it’s supposed to bring fear to me. I don’t fear any man.”

“If that’s how he feels, that’s how he feels,” shrugged Gronkowski when he was asked about Ramsey. “It’s a big game this Sunday, we’re playing them. I’m sure I’m going to have opportunities to go versus him. I’m sure he’s going to have opportunities to go versus me. I’m just preparing like I always prepare. I’ve got to just do my job out on the field (and) just worry about that.”

But are they going to square off? Based on last year’s AFC title game, probably not. We decided to go back and take a look at all 26 of Gronkowski’s snaps in last year’s January’s showdown to see how Jacksonville went after the tight end. What did we see? An awful lot of Gronkowski matched up against …



Tashaun Gipson.

In all, Gronkowski played 26 snaps before leaving late in the first half with a concussion. Of those snaps, he ran 19 routes, and served as a blocker on seven occcasions. In that time, he was matched in man coverage against a corner twice — on both occasions, it was Ramsey. The guy who saw most of the action against Gronkowski? It was the 5-foot-11, 210-pound Gipson, who was opposite Gronkowski on five occasions. (Gronkowski also saw work against linebacker Telvin Smith and safety Barry Church.)

On the biggest play of the first drive — a fourth and 1 for New England — the Jaguars elect to put Gipson on Gronkowski when the tight end was split wide right, and use Ramsey against Chris Hogan in the slot. On the play, Tom Brady found Danny Amendola down the left sideline to pick up an important first down.



Here are the two plays where Gronkowski and Ramsey were matched in single coverage. The first play, Gronkowski starts out in the slot, split left, and fends off a pesky Ramsey across the middle of the field. Who won this battle? Hard to say, but we’ll give it to Ramsey — even though he had some help at the end of the play — just because he was running stride for stride with the tight end, and it would have had to have been a perfect pass from Brady if he was looking to connect with Gronkowski on the play.



The second play is a draw. Gronkowski starts flush on the hip of right tackle Cam Fleming, and runs a seam route. While it’s well-defended by Ramsey, we’ve seen Brady and Gronkowski make that throw-and-catch before on a number of occasions. All things being equal, we'll split it.



The thing that really stands out about watching Ramsey against the Patriots’ pass catchers from last January? His change of direction and his ability to deliver a hit that limits yards after the catch. On the play below, Gipson gets contact on him off the line, but he’s still able to release and get to the second level. Brady delivers the ball — just before getting hit — and Gronkowski is able to nimbly make the adjustment and come away with the catch, which goes for 21 yards. But when Ramsey spots the ball in the air headed for Gronkowski, he breaks off coverage on Hogan and heads right for the tight end to help, and he ends up with a nice, clean shot on Gronkowski.



Ultimately, a lot has changed between last January and this week. In the AFC title game, Ramsey spent a lot of time on Hogan. This time around, that would probably feel like a waste of resources on the Jaguars’ part. With the New England wide receiver position thinned, will we see some Gronkowski-Ramsey? Or Gronkowski-Gipson? Only time will tell. The only thing we know for sure? Given his track record as one of the most quotable guys in the league, Ramsey’s going to tell us exactly what he thought about the outcome when it’s all done.