One of the bedrock ideas here from FO seems to be that the Patriots' passing offense hasn't really fallen off post-Gronk, which is part of the justification for saying that we should throw a lot against Denver.
This is one of those weird areas where the DVOA formula matters quite a bit, because if the passing offense hasn't fallen off according to DVOA, that's almost entirely due to opponent adjustments. From an unadjusted statistical standpoint, our passing offense has been pretty mediocre since Gronk went down. But we played defenses ranked #2, #9, #12, and #13 against the pass in that stretch.
I guess it comes down to how much you really think our performance throwing the ball in recent weeks can be chaulked up to those opponents. Despite what DVOA says, I reamin skeptical of the idea that the current post-Gronk incarnation of our offense wants to get into a pass-heavy shootout with this Denver team.