New England Patriots: Rob Gronkowski scores nice 69th career touchdown

New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski just scored his 69th career touchdown. Nice.

For the New England Patriots, the narrative has long been that their offense is at its best when tight end Rob Gronkowski is on the field. However, Tom Brady and Co. proved last season — when Gronk was sidelined for the season with injury — that they could do just fine without him. Having said that, there were high hopes for what the unit could look like with him returning in 2017.

In the season-opener, there wasn’t much going for Gronk and the Pats as a whole. The tight end very much looked like a team getting his footing underneath him. Overreactions wondered if the big man would ever return to form.

We can ask the New Orleans Saints defense how they feel about Rob Gronkowski’s form.

On Sunday in Week 2 on the road, Gronkowski caught a ball on the right sideline with defenders around him. It didn’t seem like the contact or the prospect of being stopped really crossed his mind. The big tight end just rumbled through and on the way to the end zone. More importantly, he rumbled to his 69th career touchdown:

Nice.

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If he stays healthy, there aren’t going to be many tight end receiving records that Gronkowski doesn’t break throughout his career. He’s going to be all over the record books. Having said that, you have to imagine that no milestone will mean as much to him as touchdown No. 69.

He is Gronk, after all.