On Thursday, agent Drew Rosenhaus told WQAM radio in Miami that Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski still had not been cleared to play on Sunday against the Jets.
On Friday, Rosenhaus told PFT that the clearance has arrived.
“Rob has now been cleared by all his doctors to play Sunday in the Jets game,” Rosenhaus said via text message.
Clearance to play doesn’t automatically mean he’ll play. Coach Bill Belichick has to decide to use him.
On a per game basis in 2012, Gronkowski was 30% better than a banged up Jimmy Graham and 73% better than an average fantasy TE1, so this is obviously huge news for his owners. He may not be 100 percent, and the Patriots may ease him into the lineup, but chances are good that he sees enough snaps to produce solid TE1 numbers against the Jets. We'll update our rankings shortly, but this will no doubt help Tom Brady as he now has the top redzone target in the league at his disposal. With Danny Amendola unlikely to play, Julian Edelman, Kenbrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson take a hit due to a likely drop in targets, but the quality of those targets should increase as the defense now has to account for Gronkowski. It's probably a wash for Stevan Ridley, who should enjoy more trips to the redzone, but may not see the same type of usage as the Patriots feature Gronkowski around the goal line.
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