Green Bay Packers at New England Patriots: 5 matchups to watch

4. Green Bay Defense vs Rob Gronkowski

Safety and edge rusher has been the team’s worst positions on the entire team this season. Safety got even worse this week when the team traded away starting safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. It will be interesting to see what the team decides to do to defend one of the best tight ends to ever play the game of football in Rob Gronkowski. He’s a walking mismatch, and the Packers don’t have a close match for him.

The Packers have defended tight ends fairly well, but they haven’t played a player of Gronk’s caliber. One rumored change for this week is the possibility of playing veteran cornerback Tramon Williams in the free safety spot. Williams has played safety in defensive coordinator Mike Pettine’s system in the past. However, Williams may have good ball skills, but he doesn’t have the size typically needed to be a strong match against Gronk.

Every defense that plays the Patriots has a couple different ways to handle their offense. Either let Gronk get his while trying to stop everyone else, or shut down Gronk and hope you stop the rest of the team. It will be interesting to see what the Packers decide to do. They may have no choice other than to hope Gronk has a below average day Sunday night.