On Thursday, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski made waves by saying he’s week-to-week with a hamstring injury. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Gronkowski is expected to be a game-time decision on Sunday night.
The next tangible clue will come on Friday, when a label is applied to Gronkowski. With the changes to the injury-reporting rules, Gronkowski likely will be listed as questionable or doubtful. The two terms used to mean 50-50 and 25-75, respectively. Now, questionable essentially encompasses anything less than 100 percent down to 50, and doubtful covers anything from 49.9 percent down to 0.1.
Then comes New England’s trip to Arizona, at which time the Patriots will, or won’t, leave Gronkowski behind. If they don’t bring him, he’ll be out. (Duh.) If they do, the issue will go right up to 90 minutes before kickoff, when the inactive lists are submitted.