Jan 13, 2013; Foxboro, MA, USA; New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (87) catches a pass out of bounds while defended by Houston Texans inside linebacker Barrett Ruud (54) during the first half of the AFC divisional round playoff game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Rob Gronkowski is currently dealing with the worst routine break in an arm in history. He has already had 3 surgeries, a fourth surgery is imminent and it is feared that he might need a 5th before it is all said and done. Now, his broken arm has led to him needing back surgery.

Ok, so the back surgery has nothing to do with the broken arm, but still. Gronkoswki is having an unprecedentedly bad offseason in terms of his health. His broken arm has repeatedly succumbed to infection and required surgery after surgery and now, he needs a back surgery. The back surgery has a projected 10 week recover time and can’t occur until 3-4 weeks after his arm surgery next week. That means that with zero setbacks, an achievement that Gronk has never attained after surgery, He would only be cleared to play 3 weeks before the season started. Yikes.

The Ravens, despite some offseason doubters, remain one of the best teams in the AFC and might even be better next year than they were this year. The Patriots figure to be among their principle competition. The question that begs answering is, are the Patriots a serious potential #1 seed without Gronk for an extended part of the season? Im not so sure they are.

The Patriots entire offense is built around Rob Gronkowski, without him they drop almost 5 ppg in scoring. For a team without a legitimate defense, that is a huge deal. The Patriots rely on him as much as any team relies on any non-QB player in the league. They can get by with just Aaron Hernandez for a few games, but if Gronk were to have a setback and miss say, half the season. the Patriots would be in serious trouble, and the Ravens would have one less team to worry about.

Dec 30, 2012; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders (88) runs the ball against Cleveland Browns defensive back Trevin Wade (26) during the second half of the game at Heinz Field. The Steelers won the game, 24-10. Mandatory Credit: Jason Bridge-USA TODAY Sports

The Steelers have opted to match the New England Patriots offer of one year 2.5 million dollars to retain WR Emmanuel Sanders. The Steelers had until today to match the offer and they let it come right down to the buzzer before deciding to retain the WR.

This worked out about as well as it could have for the Ravens. The Patriots dont get another offensive weapon and the Steelers are in a worse cap situation than ever. They had just over 2 million coming into the day(which included Sanders origional tender worth  1.323 million), that means with the new 2.5 million dollar cap hit on the books the Steelers now have less than 1 million in cap left.  They have somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000-600,000 left. That means that in addition to not being able to sign any free agent that isnt a vet minimum contract, they also are going to have to either cut some players or restructure some contracts to sign their rookie class. The Steelers will probably get a pretty good player at 17, but they are going to have to find a way to pay the money that the 17th pick commands. The Steelers will also likely lose  Sanders in free agency next year, which means they basically gave up a third round pick(what the Patriots would have had to give them if they had signed Sanders) for one year of Sanders services.

I love it, The Steelers are in a terrible spot, the Patriots gamble on a player contract and have it blow up in their face as they dont get the guy they wanted, this could not have worked out better.

Feb 3, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs (55) after their game against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

So Today Terrell Suggs made the media circuit. As one might expect, Suggs said some inflamatory things, but honestly, that is just Suggs being Suggs.

The most interesting comment, and the one I want to focus on, was the series of comments he made about the Patriots getting preferential treatment. This is a subject that has been touched on a bunch of times by a bunch of people, but I can’t remember it ever being so public, and so brash.

The center of this argument is the rule made for QB protection after Tom Brady tore his ACL in 2008 and the implementation of that rule league wide to different QBs. Suggs argument started with the creation of the rule. He started by citing the injuries to Carson Palmer, and Drew Brees(which Suggs was responsible for), which were very similar to the Brady injury(an argument can be made that the Palmer injury was  by far the most devastating of the three because he has never been the same player since). Neither of those injuries were the basis of a new NFL rule to protect them. Tom Brady was. That part can be explained away as Brady simply being the straw that broke the camels’ back so to speak.

The tougher one to explain away is the way the officials call the rule. It seems clear to anyone watching(anyone who isnt a patriot fan anyway), that the rule is called almost inexplicably tight on Tom Brady, but the rest of the leagues QBs pretty much get to fend for themselves. This one I agree with big time. How many times have we seen Joe Flacco get leveled by a high or low hit and draw no flag? what about the Super Bowl play where Flacco was hit way out of bounds after scrambling for a few yards? think Tom brady wouldnt have drawn a flag on that one? Ok, in fairness Brady would never have been in that situation…he would have slid four yards earlier and kicked Navarro Bowman in the kneecap.

The most frustrating thing about watching the Ravens play the Patriots is always waiting for that inevitable moment in the game where Brady will get knocked down and then sit on the ground for like 35 seconds and look at the ref like a petulant child until the ref is pressured into throwing the flag(usually way late) and giving out a bogus 15 yarder. Suggs definitely has a point here, I think a lot of people have been thinking this for a long long time and haven’t said it, but leave it to Suggs to be the guy to do it.