If you were ever wondering if Kansas City Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles is ready to get back on the field, wonder no more. Charles, who says he's about 80 percent recovered from his torn ACL last September, made it clear as day that he is itching to get back onto the field.

Via comments distributed by the Chiefs:

"I'm hungry. I want it this year. I've got the passion for it. I can be patient. I just can't wait to play football, I can't wait to bring stuff back to this community and show how much we can win. And I feel like this is a year for us, that we can go all the way because I can feel it. And me, I feel I can bring a lot to the team this year being bigger and stronger, and I don't know, maybe even faster. I can wait awhile. In my mind, I want to get back out there because I want to see where I'm at, but I feel like I'm already there, so I can just wait. Just like when I had my shoulder surgery, I waited the whole training camp to go back. I didn't do anything really during OTAs or minicamp."

Love it. Absolutely love it.

Charles spent the 2011 season on the bench and when asked what it was like to watch the games last year he said it made him sick. (Coincidentally, the Chiefs play last year sometimes made me sick, too.)

"It was sick. It made me stronger. It made me the person that I am today, I can't wait and I know how to take care of my body, how to eat right and do the right things and it's made me not want to wait to touch that field again. When I touch that field going out there, you're going to feel my pain; you're going to go through what I went through. That right there is going to be there for the rest of my career because I don't want to be out a whole year ever again. That point, at my stage, I'm 25 years old, I'm at the point in my life that I've got to win games, I want to go to the playoffs, I wonder why we can't go to the Super Bowl. That had me thinking a lot and made me a better player."

One more: "If you're worried about me not being the same, just look for this year, look out for me and you'll see."

Anyone else feeling a little bad for those Falcons defenders who will have to chase Charles around in Week 1?