Bill Belichick says Rob Gronkowski is cleared to play

Rob Gronkowski missed training camp last year, in fact he missed the first six weeks of the season. When he went down with a torn ACL just a month or so after returning, it was assumed we'd be playing the waiting game for Gronk this year too.

That's officially not the case.

NESN.com:

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said Gronkowski will not start the summer on the physically unable to perform list because “he’s been cleared to play.” The All-Pro tight end tore his ACL in Week 14 of the 2013 NFL season in the Patriots’ 27-26 win over the Cleveland Browns.

This comes as a slight surprise, based on our offseason expectations, but we saw a hint of this coming when Gronk was not named to the PUP list when it was announced by the team.

So, it looks like we have a shot at 16 games of Gronk this year. Does that leave you more excited for this offense? For an example of how dominant Gronk has been in the short time he's seen the field recently, he has 90 catches, 1,308 yards and 14 TDs in 16 games over the past two years. A pretty remarkable "full season". (h/t Field Yates)