Well here is the thing with Gronk...
He's the most gifted tight end that the Patriots have ever had.
And he's possibly the most gifted tight end the NFL has ever seen.
I mean his rookie season he gets double digit touchdowns already.
His second year he only breaks the all time TE receiving TD record.
Oh and BTW he led the ENTIRE NFL in receiving TDs that year too.
How many times in history has a TE led the NFL in receiving TDs?
Right now at the midway point Gronk has 7 TDs and is on pace for 14. And that's in a season where he looks to have been slowed by injury. Last week's game, Gronk looked the healthiest he has all season. He's now going into the bye week and should hopefully be at 100% or close to it for the rest of the season.
Gronk is a dominant player who has the ability to get on hot streaks. He could easily score more than 6 TDs in the span of the next 8 games. So I think that 12 TDs total would be a very very minimum expectation. 15+ TDs is also realistic if he gets 'hot' over the last 8 games. With a high ceiling player like Gronk, and a high octane offense like the Patriots, it's even possible that he surpasses his previous record or gets very close to it.
In other words, I'm really looking forward to what Gronk can do in the second half of 2012. And don't forget that Aaron Hernandez is coming back too! The presence of AH will make it harder for teams to just 'double down' on Gronk because they can't afford to ignore our other tight ends.