Josh Gordon has been all over the news for about the last three or four years and it hasn’t been for what he’s done on the football field. He’s had issues with drug addiction and he’s been suspended for an entire season. He finally played last season and made his NFL return on November 30th, 2017 and a few weeks later against the Packers, he caught his first touchdown since the 2013 season. Many were looking forward to his return this season and pairing up with Jarvis Landry, they were expected to be one of the best tandems of receivers in the league. On Saturday night, news came out that the Browns were planning to release Josh and I was shocked by it as many others were. Then, reports came out that the Browns were looking to trade him, but not to a team in the AFC and after I heard that, the San Francisco 49ers came to mind especially with the offensive-minded guy that Kyle Shanahan. Today, he was traded and he is now a member of the New England Patriots.
I considered them to be a sleeper pick for his services and I can sit here and say I’m not shocked about them making this move and to be honest, I’m glad they made this happen because of the lack of depth they’ve had at the receiver position this year. No disrespect, but Corrdarrelle Patterson and Philip Dorsett don’t scare me as a defender weekly. We all know about Edelman and Chris Hogan has been a great addition, but he’s not a number one receiver. Adding Josh to the mix finally gives Brady a true possession receiver on the outside, something the Patriots have lacked for years since the days of Randy Moss and I thought they had this type of receiver with Brandin Cooks, but they decided to trade him away. When you look at the Patriots passing attack over the years, they’ve worked on attacking the flat and have used the speed and shiftiness of Julian along with power, size and quickness of Gronkowski and it’s worked. With Josh, you’re getting a true number one receiver and guy who’s a nightmare to defend all over the field. First, I don’t think people realize just how big this kid really is. He’s 6’3, about 225 pounds and he has blazing speed for a man his size. He’s the type of receiver that you can lob it up too and he’ll find some way to come down with the football. Although he’s a bigger receiver, he moves as if he’s a guy who plays in the slot which is impressive because as I always say, you can catch the football all you want, but it’s what you do with it that says everything. He displays the great body control to keep himself in bounds and his best attribute to his game is the ability to get down the field and take the top off the zone along with splitting double teams. He does such a terrific job of positioning himself to make the catch and he also seems to “box out” his defender as if he were getting a rebound on the basketball court.
The Patriots offense can turn things up with anybody on their team. Remember their last Super Bowl title in 2016-17? Gronk was injured and they were still scoring points with Edelman and Hogan, guys who wouldn’t be the top targets on any other team in the league. Let’s just look at the weapons that Tom has now. He’s still got Gronkowski of course, Edelman has two more games to serve of his suspension, then he will be back, Hogan is still a nice target, you have James White who’s just another receiver but his position is running back and now, Josh Gordon. That’s scary to even type yet think about.
