4 Reasons the New England Patriots Will Win Super Bowl XLIX

Rob Gronkowski

Once Rob Gronkowski started seeing an uptick in volume after Week 4, the entire Patriots' offense changed. He's a matchup nightmare, and his advanced analytics show just that, outscoring the second-best tight end, Antonio Gates, by 22 Reception Net Expected Points this season. That type of gap in NEP was the same we saw between Gates and the number-eight tight end, Coby Fleener.

On the season, 11 of the 17 passing touchdowns that Seattle allowed this season came against the tight end position. Some of their competition was tough (including five top-11 tight ends in terms of Reception NEP), but some of the tight ends they faced had their best games of the season from an advanced analytics perspective, including Antonio Gates, Mychal Rivera, and Jason Witten. Within the context of Seattle's secondary -- which is beastly -- the tight end position has found moderate success. That's a big advantage for a team with such an important tight end weapon.