JOSHUA CALEB GORDON IS A NEW ENGLAND PATRIOT. !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ahem. Anyways…
I’m still processing the fact that Bill Belichick actually went and acquired this guy. I hate to sound like that fan, but I’ve genuinely been a fan of Gordon’s throughout his career. Yes, he’s only truly played one season and that was five years ago, but still. If you were a football fan in the Lord’s year of 2013, you know what I’m talking about.
Gordon led the league in receiving yards (1,646) that year, catching 87 passes as well as nine touchdowns, and caught passes from three different signal callers (Jason Campbell, Brandon Weeden and Brian Hoyer) through fourteen games played. He also earned Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro honors.
It was all downhill for the wide receiver after a phenomenal rookie performance. Before Sunday’s game against Miami with the Patriots, Gordon had caught only 43 passes and two touchdowns after the 2013 season. He was suspended for 10 games in 2014 as well as all of 2015, playing some preseason ball in 2016 and was finally reinstated for the final five weeks of the 2017 season. He caught 18 passes for 336 yards and one touchdown for the 0-16 Browns.
Over this most recent offseason, Gordon underwent treatment and counseling for his mental and physical health back in July. Gordon started Week 1 of the regular season for Cleveland, catching one pass good for a touchdown as his team tied Pittsburgh.
Gordon was promptly ruled out for Week 2 after he reported to practice 10 minutes late on that Saturday prior to the game, claiming he had suffered a sore hamstring during a promotional photoshoot. People within the Browns organization said he “wasn’t himself”, either. John Dorsey, Cleveland’s general manager, announced that same day that the team would part ways with him by 4 PM Monday afternoon and would be open to trade talks before the deadline.
I think every football fan expected the troubled WR to hit the free agent market and few genuinely thought the Patriots of all teams would go after him despite having an extremely depleted receiving corps. For various reasons, of course, those including his frequent substance abuse suspensions and given the fact that he had missed 56 of 97 possible games since entering the NFL.
So, what did the Patriots do? Trade for Gordon Monday afternoon, giving up merely a conditional fifth-round pick. Not even simply a fifth-round pick, but a conditional fifth-round pick.
Obviously, people (COUGH COUGH sports talk radio COUGH COUGH) absolutely hammered Belichick for this move due to the player’s past. Gordon openly drank and did drugs before “most” of the games he’s played in ever since high school, to quote the player. He’s been busted for everything from marijuana possession to DUI’s to abusing prescription painkillers. A player as troubled as Josh Gordon isn’t necessarily a textbook Patriot.
We as a society are quick to judge alcoholics/drug abusers, though. Especially those who had “sheltered” and “privileged” upbringings, for lack of better terms. I’m honestly surprised that Gordon’s reasons for his drug use that dates back to middle school aren’t as talked about as it should be. I mean, he’s very open about what led him down the unfortunate path he took beginning at a young age. Before a couple of weeks ago, I had no clue about his childhood and past.
In an interview with GQ, Gordon discussed the reasoning behind his issues and addictions:
“Initially it started for me, [because of] a lot of childhood and adolescent trauma-based fear. I was using in my childhood. That environment brought me into that a lot sooner than a normal—whatever normal is—kid should be brought into that, to be able to make a decision on their own of what to do. I didn’t want to feel anxiety, I didn’t want to feel fear. I didn’t plan on living to 18. Day-to-day life, what’s gonna happen next? So you self-medicate with Xanax, with marijuana, codeine—to help numb those nerves so you can just function every day. That became the norm from middle school to high school. So by the time I got into my 20s, I was on an accelerated pace.”
I’m sorry, but if that doesn’t hit you directly in the heart, you need help.
Back to the point. New England trading for Josh Gordon is about as low-risk, high-reward as you can get in professional sports. There is absolutely no reason why anyone, from fans to the media, should be complaining about this move. You can think he’s a “horrible” human being all you want, but you’re paying him LESS than $700K, and he’s a free agent at the end of the year. The guy is ‘6’3”, 225 pounds and can take the top off of the defense. If he’s “still” a “troublemaker” in Foxboro, you can dump him in a matter of seconds. Chances are, he only deepens a thin wide receiving group and can give Rob Gronkowski more opportunities in the middle of the field as well as Julian Edelman when he returns, limiting the number of double teams these key offensive weapons see.
The Patriots do not need a flashy wide receiver, per se, as they’ve shown they do not need one over the past 18 years. I see him having a unique role as this season progresses, being used as a decoy as well as a genuine offensive threat while giving the team depth and options to work with, fooling opposing defenses more often.
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Josh Gordon is the most dynamic wideout Tom Brady has had since Randy Moss. You could compare the two, in a way, if you wished. Moss was, at times, before he became a Patriot, quite the controversial player, even dating back to college. He picked fights in college and tested positive for marijuana while he was already serving a jail sentence, violating probation. He was fined numerous times in the early 2000’s for various verbal reasons and was even arrested in Minnesota in 2002 for bumping a police officer with his car that, not to mention, had weed in it.
Once Bill Belichick traded for Moss, he turned into an NFL poster boy and kind of still is to this day. While Gordon’s issues are far more serious than most people’s, including Moss’, I still firmly believe the team’s system can help Gordon get back on track as both an athlete and a human being in general. Gordon has probably experienced a bit of a culture shock since joining the Patriots on September 17, from the playbook to general support. Belichick and the Patriots wouldn’t have traded for this particular player if they didn’t intend to make him a better person and support him in his efforts to turn his life around.
As far as on-field things go, as I said before, don’t expect Gordon to be Brady’s go-to, number one weapon. Expect Gordon to be Brady’s main deep threat option, but as we know, New England rarely incorporates deep plays into their gameplans, so that means virtually nothing. Nonetheless, Gordon provides essential depth to a wideout corps that includes Phillip Dorsett, Chris Hogan and Cordarrelle Patterson before Edelman returns to gameplay from suspension on October 4.
Not to mention, Gordon is bigger than every wideout employed by the Patriots. Cordarrelle Patterson is the second-largest, but he’s taken over as more of a kick returner as opposed to a genuine offensive weapon; yet, at least.
In Sunday’s game versus Miami, Gordon only caught two passes, but they were both caught in traffic, totaling 32 yards. I’m no expert but I would go as far as to say that that is actually good. Gordon also drew a clutch holding penalty on third down at the start of the second quarter that extended the drive and had a key block on James White’s touchdown run. He opened up the middle of the field for the likes of Gronkowski and Dorsett when he was on the field and helped make the Patriots offense look alive after two straight weeks of downright embarrassing play.
If the Patriots had not acted fast and snagged another wide receiver, let alone one like Josh Gordon, they would have truly risked losing three straight games for the first time since 2002 (NOTE: I was one year old in 2002…crazy stuff). They were desperate less than two weeks ago, people forget that. They didn’t necessarily need another wide receiver for Brady to throw to, they just needed someone to widen the field for the guys they already had.
Just think about it. The Dolphins had to gameplan against Gronkowski and Gordon, and by all means, failed miserably. From Week 5 and forward, teams will have to gameplan against Gronkowski, Gordon AND Edelman. That is quite literally unfair.
The moral of the story is, I am absolutely thrilled that this beast of a man is a New England Patriot. He’s easily the greatest JG10 the Patriots have ever seen. He’s simply a machine. The man nicknamed Flash (how badass is that?!?) adds depth to the roster, draws attention away from the rest of the offense, is a major deep threat AND can block better than Dwayne Allen (that may be a stretch but I do not approve of Dwayne Allen taking up $3.8 million against the cap so go along with it). What more could you (I) ask for?
Gordon went from a to-be free agent to a potentially pivotal part of the 2018-19 New England Patriots. I feel like this happens every season, but this time feels different. Josh Gordon is simply different. You either hate him or you love him. I know for a fact that I personally love him. Maybe by the end of the season, you’ll grow to love him, too. Treat him well. Who knows, he might just be featured in the Patriots Super Bowl DVD intro in a matter of months.
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