Patriots coach Bill Belichick has taken some heat for having tight end Rob Gronkowski on the field for a fourth-quarter extra point that resulted in Gronkowski suffering a broken arm. Jets coach Rex Ryan thinks that’s dumb.
Ryan, who is preparing to play a Gronkowski-less Patriots team on Thursday, told reporters today that every team uses important players on extra points, and no coach should be criticized for that.
“Absolutely ridiculous,” Ryan said, via Tom Curran of CSNNE.com. "[Gronkowski] is on an extra point. He’s probably done it 100 times this year for the simple fact that’s how many points they score. You never see that. Every single team in the league, we have D’Brickashaw Ferguson there.”
Ryan said coaches can’t go through games worrying about injuries.
“You don’t play the game that way and it’s just an unfortunate thing,” Ryan said. “That’s just a freak deal that that would happen. But unfortunately that’s part of the game. Injuries do happen. We lose [wide receiver Santonio] Holmes and [cornerback Darrelle] Revis to non-contact injuries and it’s just one of those things and it’s unfortunate, obviously.”
Belichick’s decision to keep Tom Brady in Sunday’s game, throwing passes, with a 28-point lead deep in the fourth quarter is a more questionable move. But on the Gronkowski injury, it’s hard to disagree with Ryan: A broken arm on an extra point is a freak occurrence, not something Belichick should have seen coming.