Free-agent WR Rice medically cleared after ACL tear

Sidney Rice had 231 receiving yards before tearing his ACL in October. (USATSI)

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Any NFL team still looking for a wide receiver might want to give Sidney Rice a call because he's finally healthy. The former Seahawks receiver, who tore his ACL in October, tweeted on Monday that he's been medically cleared to resume football activities.

Rice was injured in a Week 8 win over the Rams. Before tearing his ACL, Rice was the Seahawks third leading receiver with 231 yards over the season's first seven weeks, trailing Doug Baldwin (372) and Golden Tate (439).

The Seahawks released Rice in February in a cost-cutting move that cleared up $7.3 million in 2014 cap space.

Now that he's healthy, Rice is expected to sign quickly, according to ProFootballTalk. Among the teams interested in Rice are the Saints, Giants, Panthers and Seahawks.

When Rice is healthy, he generally produces, but staying healthy has been a problem during his seven seasons in the NFL. Since his rookie year of 2007, Rice has only made it through an entire season twice (2009, 2012). In 2009 with the Vikings, Rice was voted to the Pro Bowl after tallying 1,312 receiving yards, the fourth-highest total in the NFL that year.

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Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski right on schedule with his knee rehab



Here's a quick update on Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, who is spending a second consecutive offseason trying to heal his broken body. Gronkowski suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee last December. NFL Network's Albert Breer reported Friday that Gronkowski visited the man who performed his reconstructive knee surgery, Dr. James Andrews, this week and is "right where he should be" in his rehab. He will also begin jogging soon, according to Breer.



A lot of discussions this summer on Gronkowski's fantasy value will echo what was said about him at that time last year, only exchanging the words "forearm" and "back" for "knee." And my approach with him in drafts will be the same. I know a healthy Gronkowski is worth a high pick, probably in the second round. But I don't trust that he will be healthy for Week 1, and I am not going to put such a big investment into someone who is probably going to miss a couple of games at the start of the season, and may not truly be 100 percent for a while after that.It depends on how much risk you like to take in your drafts. I'm very risk-averse. I'll let someone else pay a high price for Gronk. If he is totally good to go for Week 1 or shortly thereafter and puts up numbers anywhere close to 2011 Gronk, it's a great move. I think the odds of such a scenario of much less than even.