GronkSmash
Rob Gronkowski is in a scoring slump. It’s one of the worst scoring slumps of his career. But more on that in a bit.
Jerry Rice once [1]Well, he actually did it three times, although the same 55 games were in all three stretches. caught 67 touchdowns over a 57-game period. This stretch was during all of 1987, 1988, and 1989 (including playoffs) and the start of the 1990 season. That pro-rates to an insane 19-touchdown per-season average for three-and-a-half seasons. Then again, the weirder thing is when Rice doesn’t top a receiving category.
Lance Alworth once caught 55 touchdowns [2]Three times, like Rice, with 55 of the same games. over one 57-game stretch from 1963 to 1967.
Only three other players since 1960 have ever had more than 50 touchdowns in any 57-game stretch (including playoffs): Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, and Art Powell, each of whom topped out at 53 touchdowns in 57 games. Cris Carter, Sonny Randle, Sterling Sharpe were at 49, Larry Fitzgerald was at 58, and Gary Collins, Anthony Freeman, Marvin Harrison, and Andre Rison were at 47. Calvin Johnson topped out at 46 at one point in 2013. Dez Bryant hit 46 in his last 57 after the Lions playoff game, but then went three straight games without a touchdown catch.
Now, on to Rob Gronkowski. After his three-touchdown performance on opening day, he had an incredible 53 touchdown catches in his last 57 games (including playoffs). He kept that rate alive with a touchdown the next week. But now, Gronk is in a serious cold spell: he has just three touchdown catches in his last six games. You have to go back to his rookie season for the only times Gronkowksi ever had fewer than three touchdowns in any six-game stretch, and from 2011 to 2014, his trailing six game touchdown average was a robust 5.28. Heck, Gronkowski not catching a touchdown yesterday against Washington counts as a scoring drought for him.
And against that backdrop, consider that Gronkowski still has 52 touchdowns in his last 57 games. has now done even more impressive. There are 14 stretches (with lots of overlapping games, of course) where Gronkowski has caught 50 touchdowns in 57 games. He’s been incredibly consistent since his rookie year: in fact, exclude that season, and he has 51 touchdowns in 56 career regular season games prior to yesterday, and another six in seven playoff games. And, of relevant note: Gronkowski had just seven snaps in the division round win over the Texans before breaking his forearm; exclude that game, and he’s had 57 touchdowns in 63 career games, including the playoffs, since his rookie season.
That is an incredible stretch can only be topped by three people. One is the greatest football player of all time. The second is Don Hutson. The stats above were generated using game logs back to 1960, but if you look at Hutson’s touchdown log, you can determine that he caught 60 touchdowns in one 57-game stretch at the end of his career. The third [3]Well, I suppose someone else could have done it prior to 1960, but I’m skeptical and too lazy to research. is Alworth, who may well be the third greatest wide receiver of all time, and is almost certainly with Hutson as the two best wide receivers in the pre-merger era.
So yeah, Gronk is pretty good. Even when he’s been bad.