Curran: Patriots will be cautious with Gronk

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Rob Gronkowski was back at practice with the Patriots on Friday, but before you get excited and start imagining a big Gronk spike on Sunday night, take a step back.

Tom E. Curran points out that there's a big difference between "getting healthy" and "getting close to game action."

Sunday will mark almost four weeks since Gronk went down with the broken arm and the Patriots won't be in a hurry to rush him back.

Curran offers a reminder of what happened last year - the Patriots went into the Super Bowl with a less-than-100 Gronk and it didn't do them much good. The team will be careful and make sure their star tight end is fully recovered before he gets back into a game.

For Curran, that means Gronk most likely doesn't return until the playoffs.

So why have Gronkowski practice if he's not ready to play?

Curran offers two reasons:

1. It's a little bit of gamesmanship on the part of the Patriots. By getting Gronk on the field and listing him as questionable on the injury report, the 49ers are forced to prepare for the possibility that Gronk may play. It's just one more thing for San Fran to worry about.

2. Gronk has been off the field for nearly a month. When he actually does return to game action, the Patriots will want him to be well-conditioned and getting back to practice is the first step in making sure he's at game-speed when he's finally healthy enough to play.

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