Whether he stays there is a different thing. For now, though, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is fully healthy.
“I’m 100 percent,” Gronkowski told reporters on Tuesday. “Good to go.”
Some had doubts that Gronkowski would ever be the same again after undergoing yet another back surgery. Gronkowski wasn’t among them.
“No, definitely no doubts,” Gronkowski said. “I just know that all the hard work you put in is what you’re going to get out of it. I love to put in the work. [I] love the challenge sometimes. It is what it was and now I’m good to go.”
He’s good to go with a contract that pays him up to $5.5 million beyond the $5.25 million he was already due to earn this season.
“I’m definitely very thankful for the opportunity that the Patriots organization has [given] me,” Gronkowski said regarding the new deal he signed last month. “I just have to keep working hard and do what’s best for the team and do what’s best for myself to help out the team in every way possible.”
If he stays healthy, he’ll help out the Patriots in ways that he didn’t last year, when they won the Super Bowl while he was recovering from back surgery. If he can stay at or close to 100 percent for all of 2017, the Patriots could be the first team to win back-to-back titles since the Patriots did in 2003-04.