Josh Gordon discussion

[The Oi]

http://www.nfl.com/photoessays/0ap2000000296938

Now, as far as Josh Gordon goes.. from the same link:

Jesus Christ.

1-22?? That's astounding.

 

[MD13]

http://mmqb.si.com/2013/12/13/josh-gordon-cleveland-browns-record/

Josh Gordon Has Arrived
After an aborted college career, the wayward wideout’s hopes for the NFL came down to one summer workout for scouts on a lonely field in Houston. Two years later he’s emerging as the most electrifying talent this side of Megatron

By
Andrew Lawrence
· More from Andrew·
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BEREA, OHIO — The buzz was so much softer two summers ago. And yet it rang out so clearly to Josh Gordon amid the dead quiet of the Texans’ practice bubble—over the steady July rain pummeling the roof, over the murmuring of some 20 pro scouts gathered along the sideline for his pro day, over the frantic beating of his own nervous heart. It was as if the surrounding fluorescent lightstands producing all that hypnotic feedback were wired to Gordon’s jangling nerves.

Gordon had cracked under pressure before, but those situations all came off the field. Between the white lines? Few receivers were cooler. This situation, though, was different. This was the chance he couldn’t blow. Not after getting booted from Baylor after barely two seasons, and walking out on Utah after a semester. Not after spending the past seven months scrambling to take online classes, and running for miles in the predawn as if it might somehow bring him closer to fulfilling the NFL career others always envisioned more vividly than he ever could.

It was this potential that had lured so many pro talent evaluators here, to Gordon’s hometown, on the eve of the NFL’s supplemental draft. There were no other prospects to break up the quiet, to distract attention from the maddening marvel in a beat-up Baylor T-shirt and the Adidas cleats scored from the free table in his agent’s office. Ole Miss quarterback Javon Snead was just an arm. Gordon can’t throw to himself.

(Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated)Josh Gordon has taken some time to straighten out and find himself, but in his second season in Cleveland he’s leading the league in receiving yards and threatening the all-time per-game record. (Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated)
Making it through the physical evaluation was the easy part; four years of big-time football—two at local high school powerhouse Lamar; and two more at Baylor, where Gordon tallied 714 yards and a team-leading seven touchdowns in a breakout sophomore year—had put little stress on his 6-3, 224-pound frame. His 82-inch wingspan, 36-inch vertical and 10-1 broad jump ticked more boxes on the game-breaker wish list.

But the 40-yard dash? Gordon hadn’t spent much time on it during his 10-day training camp, itself a joke compared to the two months the average NFL prospect takes in preparation for his pro workouts. The faint muscle memories he built on the 4 x 100 relay team at Lamar would have to carry him through. Gordon’s first time, 4.52 seconds, would have tied for 11th-fastest in his position group had it come at the combine, but he wasn’t as thrilled with it as the onlookers were. With one more try left, he pushed himself even harder—“At that point,” recalls the 22-year-old, “you’re just running into your future”—and, steps from the finish, partially tore his left hamstring.

The injury hadn’t cost him much time—only three-10ths of a second—but his future was in serious trouble. Again. Pain was quickly overtaking his body. As the three-cone drill was being set up, Gordon passed along word that he couldn’t do it. The scouts could hardly contain their rage. He’s not going to do it? I thought we came here to see the full workout! That buzz from earlier? You could scarcely hear it now.

Here, finally, was the Josh Gordon that had raised so many red flags. The diva. The guy who plays on his terms. If he didn’t win this crowd back, his NFL journey wasn’t going much further than the tour of Texans complex that GM Rick Smith treated him to before this workout. Not only did Gordon have to go through with the finale—the receiving drill—he had to nail it.

The setup was like something from an Upright Citizen’s Brigade show, with NFL reps calling on Gordon to improvise his way through an array of patterns he’d never run before. The more challenging the crowd suggestion—a Patriots rep insisted on seeing a China route, the Wes Welker square-in that had Gordon, gimpy and primarily a go-route specialist at Baylor, stumbling—the more it felt like revenge for backing out of the 3-cone. But Gordon kept sprinting, kept cutting and kept catching—through the pain, through some 30 requests—without a ball ever touching the turf. After 90 minutes of hell, Gordon had survived. He never thought the day would come when he could say he did.

* * *

Gordon flashed his skills at Baylor, catching passes from RG3, but he only lasted two seasons. (Manny Flores / Icon SMI)Gordon burned brightly at Baylor, catching passes from RG3, but lasted just two seasons. (Manny Flores/Icon SMI)
Josh wasn’t supposed to struggle. He was supposed to catch whatever life threw at him. He was always so mature for his age—22 inches at birth, 6 feet by age 13—and all the while those lion paws he called hands never seemed to get any smaller. Those hands, recalls Tracy Robertson, a defensive tackle teammate of Gordon’s in high school and college now on the Chicago Bears practice squad, are what added a note of trepidation to every encounter with Gordon, even when he came in peace. “I thought I was a big guy,” says the 6-4, 280-pound Robertson, “and then I’d shake his hand and he’d cover it up to my wrist. That’s not something you want to be a part of too many times.”

Still, you wanted to be around him. You had to see if the rumors were true—not least the one about him “not just dunking a basketball, but slamming it home” from a standstill, his brother Harold says. It was hard to believe that the same hands that were snatching fastballs and footballs could also drop volleys and drain putts. Throughout, Josh struggled to see what all the fuss was about, which made him even more beguiling to his slack-jawed observers. “Sometimes the things that make you more sure about another person are that they don’t understand or they’re not as sure about their ending point as you are for them,” Robertson says.

Josh’s old soul was another source of intrigue. On the slim occasions he felt like really talking, what came out went way deeper than his soft baritone delivery. He listened to Miles Davis, filled notebooks with poetry and read Mildred D. Taylor novels, about the strains on African-American families in the Deep South during slavery and the Great Depression.

But as he grew older and his middle-class family life began to deteriorate, Gordon found it tougher to discern fact from fiction. Just like that, the radio ad sales game turned on his father, Harold Sr., leaving his mother, Elaine, an elementary school teacher, to pick up the slack. The family moved eight times (a few times separately after a divorce in 2006), and the accommodations around southwest Houston—already a dodgy part of town before Hurricane Katrina refugees took it over—weren’t getting any cozier. Death always seemed to have their forwarding address. There was the loss of an aunt to lung cancer, a grandfather to another lung ailment, another aunt to heart failure; only his oldest brother Andrew, who survived an IED explosion while stationed in Iraq, dodged a visit. This all happened within a four-year span, starting with Gordon’s high school transition from Westbury Christian (enrollment: 600) to Lamar (enrollment: 3,300). Outwardly, Josh never broke from his strong, silent-type character, but under his stony exterior was a mess of hurt.

Football, his entire reason for changing schools, wasn’t much salve. Lamar’s overpopulated roster limited Gordon’s on-field opportunities. And still he crushed them, logging 1,425 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns—numbers that attracted interest from schools in the Pac-12, SEC and Big 12 and had Baylor head coach Art Briles and wide receivers coach Dino Babers rushing to Houston to secure Gordon’s commitment.

When Gordon signed with Baylor in the winter of 2009, though, he didn’t realize that he had also agreed to be tested for drugs at the school’s discretion. This was a problem, as sparking up a joint had become his preferred coping agent, the easiest way to escape from his bleak home life. After Waco police cuffed Gordon outside a Taco Bell for possession in October of 2010, it was open season on the Bears sophomore. (Never mind that the misdemeanor charge against Gordon was later dropped.) He was tested after the arrest and failed—and, according to reports, failed another drug test after that.

Gordon, the Bears’ second-leading receiver, left Baylor little choice but to dismiss him nine months later. Star quarterback Robert Griffin III, with teammates Terrance Ganaway and Elliot Coffey, visited school president Ken Starr in his office and argued for amnesty, hoping that Gordon could at least remain on campus as a student. As impressed as Starr was by their gesture—“The way they made their presentation,” Starr told SI last January, “the thoughtfulness. I said, These guys are great lawyers!”—rules are rules.

I was at the lowest point in my life,” Gordon says of his brief time at Utah. “I had a great opportunity, but I didn’t want to be there.
Gordon wasn’t entirely banished, however. Briles, who makes sons out of all of his recruits regardless of whether they finish their careers in Waco, felt a duty to make sure that Gordon “fulfilled his destiny.” Babers’s close friendship with then-Utah offensive coordinator Norm Chow facilitated Gordon’s safe passage to Salt Lake City. So you can imagine how awful Gordon felt when barely two months in, he told Utes coach Kyle Whittingham he had to leave. A fire had torn through Elaine’s apartment, and he didn’t feel right living in comfort while she labored to make rent at a Houston extended stay. Gordon left with more reportedly positive drug tests (one) than catches (zero, because of the NCAA transfer rule requiring him to sit out a year). The stress was pushing him to his breaking point. “I was at the lowest point in my life,” he says. “I had a great opportunity to be there, but I knew I didn’t have to be there. I didn’t want to be there. You’re just trying to make the best of the situation.”

Back home, he essentially worked two jobs: one a $9-an-hour gig at a local health food startup; and another at home, trying to supplement all those theology credits with community college course in hopes a school like Houston might take him on. When Cougars cornerback DJ Hayden heard that, he invited his Westbury Christian classmate out to Houston’s post-practice sessions to get in some reps. “I don’t think it was me doing anything special,” says Hayden, a rookie starter with the Raiders. “I just don’t like to leave anybody behind. Josh is my boy. I had to take care of him.”

Each grand gesture gave Elaine another reason to count her blessings. “You don’t normally see that in people,” she says, “especially when your child has done wrong.” But nothing would blow her away like the question Babers asked Gordon to start off a phone call in the spring of 2012: “Are you aware that you’re eligible for the supplemental draft?”

* * *

Another 151 yards againts the Patriots gave Gordon 774 in four games, the most ever in a four-game span. (Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated)
Gordon followed with an even bigger game versus Jacksonville: 261 yards on 10 receptions from QB Brandon Weeden. It marked the first-ever back-to-back 200-yard games by a receiver. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Against the Steelers in Week 12, Gordon set a new franchise record for receiving yards, with 237 on 14 catches. It was the second-highest total ever given up by a Pittsburgh defense. (Aaron Josefczyk/Icon SMI)
A 74-yard TD reception at Cincy (and 125 yards total) in Week 11 merited a dunk. (David Kohl/AP)
Just three receptions for 44 yards against Baltimore—but the Browns would take the rare win over the division foe. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Head down against the Chiefs, Gordon averaged a whopping 26.4 yards on five catches in Week 8. (William Purnell/Icon SMI)
The Packers held Gordon to his lowest production of the season: two receptions for 21 yards. (Morry Gash/AP)
Versus Detroit in Week 6: seven catches, 126 yards. (Jason Miller Getty Images)
As trade rumors circulated, Gordon was a study in brown against the Bills, with four catches for 86 yards. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Week 4 vs. Adam Jones and Cincinnati: four catches for 71 yards. (Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

After sitting out the first two games of 2013 with a suspension, Gordon got to work in Week 3, with 10 catches for 146 yards and a touchdown at Minnesota. (Brad Rempel/Icon SMI)
Had it really been three years since a 17-year-old Gordon crossed the stage for Lamar’s graduation ceremony at Reliant Stadium? He was so busy making up for lost time that he’d completely lost sight of the clock. And now here he was, right across Kirby Drive, inside the practice bubble, fighting to make up the ground from that false start. If he wasn’t so caught up in the moment, he could see the universe was clearly trying to tell him something.

Even his breakthrough was thoroughly lost on him. When Jeff Salley, an agent that Briles made a point of sharing with Gordon, called the receiver into his office two days later, Gordon thought he was going in to sign some papers—not keep a vigil for the supplemental draft. It’s not as if he could expect much advance coverage of it in the newspaper or follow it on TV. The most he could do was review a printout of the draft order (determined by lottery) and the names of the eight prospects who shared his lot—damaged goods like Syracuse fullback Adam Harris (three concussions as a senior) and Georgia defensive end Montez Robinson (dismissed from the team after several arrests)—while Salley worked his cell. The call from Tom Heckert, then the Browns’ general manager, came totally by surprise. He and Gordon must’ve talked for five minutes before Gordon thought to ask him the obvious: “What round is this?”

It was the second. Gordon was the only player taken—a waste of a pick according to Mike Lombardi, then an analyst with the NFL Network. Six months later Lombardi replaced Heckert as the Browns’ GM, and he has presided over a season in which Gordon became the first receiver ever to post 200 yards receiving in consecutive regular-season games and is averaging 127.3 yards per game, 1.7 behind Wes Chandler’s NFL record—and he’s done it with three different QBs throwing him the ball. One wonders how close Gordon might’ve come to Calvin Johnson’s 329-yard effort against the Cowboys in Week 8 if Gordon hadn’t been knocked out of the Browns’ Dec. 1 game against Jacksonville for the entire third quarter; he still finished with 261 yards. Then last week, for good measure, he burned the Patriots secondary—led by equally rangy corner Aqib Talib—for 151 yards and a touchdown, while also leading the team in rushing (34 yards, on one carry) in a near road upset. “He’s a helluva player,” Talib gushed after the game.

It’s as if Gordon, who has compiled an NFL-record 774 yards and five touchdowns in the past four games, became a completely different receiver since the passing of the Oct. 29 trade deadline. As much as the Browns top brass, from owner Jimmy Haslem on down, went out of their way to assure Gordon that the early season trade talk around him certainly wasn’t coming from them, he couldn’t fully trust it; he was a football gypsy, after all, one who had been forced to sit out the first two games of the season after taking codeine-based cough syrup (banned substance) for a strep throat infection. For a past drug offender who also hailed from Houston, the birthplace of purple drank, this was not a good look. One more strike and he could be out for the season.

Once called a “wasted pick” by the man who’s now the team GM, Gordon has the potential to be the most electric player to suit up for the Browns in years. (Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated)Once called a “wasted pick” by the man who’s now the team GM, Gordon has the potential to be the most electric player to suit up for the Browns in years. (Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated)
Fed up with his own halfwit decision-making, Gordon asked Browns coach Rob Chudzinski how he could become more like the person he saw himself to be: humble, hard-working and community-oriented. Chudzinski’s reply: Do something for someone else during your time away. So he drove out to a Boys & Girls club in on the east side of Cleveland, a neighborhood not unlike southwest Houston, and spent a couple afternoons shooting pool with 50 kids aged 6 through 18. In between shots he shared stories of the mistakes that had altered the course of his life and how perseverance got him back on track. And even though it would be a couple months before the kids would realize exactly who they were sharing the felt with, there was a buzz in the room—nothing like the one inside that bubble two years back. This buzz heralded another sort of difference maker.

 

[MoFlo]

Wow, high praise from a HOF WR:

Hall of Famer Michael Irvin calls Cleveland Browns' Josh Gordon "receiver MVP of 2013'' and multiple 2,000-yard receiver

By Mary Kay Cabot, Northeast Ohio Media Group

BEREA, Ohio -- Cowboys Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin, a mentor to Browns receiver Josh Gordon, proclaimed him the undisputed best receiver in the NFL this season, even better than Detroit superstar Calvin Johnson.

"He's a phenomenal, phenomenal talent --- and we're going to look at Megatron and certainly he's a beast of a player,'' said Irvin, an NFL Network analyst. "But if you ask me right now, the wide receiver MVP of the 2013 season -- it is Josh Gordon. It is Josh Gordon. Period.''

Irvin, who set the NFL record with 11 100-yard games in 1995, said Gordon can become a multiple 2,000-yard receiver if he puts his mind to it. In fact, he'd be on pace for 2,036 yards this season if he hadn't been suspended the first two games of the season. No one has ever reached 2,000 yet, but Megatron recorded a league-high 1,964 last season.

"Josh is saying now, If I put some real focus on this, I could go and get 2,000 -- 2,200 yards,'' said Irvin. "He can be a 2,000-yard receiver and I'm not talking about one season of it.''

In fact, Irvin, self-nicknamed The Playmaker, is convinced that Gordon can be as good as anyone who's ever played the position.

"Absolutely,'' said Irvin. "And he can put up numbers better than any because of where the game is now. The game is truly in the air. Wait until he has the same quarterback for 16 games and he starts working and learning the nuances. When he gets that rapport down with one quarterback. It'll be off the chains.''

Irvin texted Gordon before the Patriots game last week to congratulate him on his back-to-back 200-yard games and encourage him.

"I said, 'Josh, look up.' I said, 'do you see that sky?,''' said Irvin. "He said 'yeah,' and I said, 'that's your to grab, baby.' I said 'you've got the ability and the talent to reach up and touch the sky, man!' I said, 'don't let anything stop you from touching that sky. He said, 'man, I got it Michael. I've got to go work hard.'''

A five-time Pro Bowler who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007, Irvin said he wasn't nearly as talented as Gordon is.

"Josh is so much more physically gifted than I ever was,'' said Irvin, a three-time Super Bowl champ. "Oh God yeah. I said this about (Cowboys receiver) Dez Bryant and I'll say it about Josh. What I have, what I did, my gifts, my talent -- they can learn that. What Josh has? Man, all I can do is get down on my knees and ask God, 'why didn't you give me that?'''

Irvin said that on a scale from one to 10, Gordon has reached only about a six or seven of his potential -- in part because he's played with three quarterbacks this season.

"When he gets to his 10, he's unstoppable,'' said Irvin, who won two of his three Super Bowls with Browns offensive coordinator Norv Turner when they were in Dallas together. "I mean, he's unstoppable now. I'm going to tell you what I love most. I like people that are loyal. I'm loyal sometimes to a fault. And I think you get that out of Josh. I love the fact that he was disturbed when he heard the rumors of being traded. I had to talk him down off the ledge.

"The Browns can say, 'I've got somebody that wants to be here and it hurts to play anywhere else. I can build around that.' I told him, 'you've just got to make sure that they can depend on you to be there. Then they can build on that.''

Irvin's not as surprised as most folks about Gordon's four-game outburst, in which he's racked up an NFL-record 774 yards to with his five TDs in that span. Overall, he's leading the NFL with 1,400 yards and needs 88 Sunday against the Bears to break Johnson's five-game NFL record of 861, set this season. Johnson, who's played 12 games to Gordon's 11, is second to Gordon this season with 1,348 yards and is on pace for 1,685. Gordon is on pace for 1,782.

"I remember when I did the NFL fantasy draft in New York at the beginning of the season while Josh was on a two-game suspension and they asked about a sleeper and I said 'let me give you guys one that will help anybody win his fantasy league this year coming up,''' recalled Irvin. "I said, 'he'll be out the first two games, but after that, you're going to want to pick Josh Gordon.'

"Do you know how they got on me? 'Man, Michael's crazy!' And whenever I say stuff like that, I get those other crazy people saying, 'Michael's on crack!'

"I said 'okay,' because I had already been talking to him all summer about the opportunity that he had. When you look at his talent and then you mix it up with what Rob Chudzinski and Norv like to do -- I know he's in the spot that I had in that offense. But a guy with that talent? And at that spot? Holy smokes!''

Irvin has highlighted some of Gordon's amazing receptions -- and long touchdown catches -- on his NFL Network shows this season.

"He has the ability to go up big over people, but he also has the ability to catch a screen and go the distance,'' said Irvin. "He's a defensive back's nightmare.''

Irvin texted Gordon before Patriots game and gave him some tips on how to play premier cornerback Aqib Talib.

"I said 'you watch Talib against Jimmy Graham -- Jimmy Graham was too high,'' said Irvin. "You saw him against Steve Smith, Steve Smith plays low. I said make sure you're low enough when you come off that he won't be able to stop you. I'm so proud of what he did. They should've won that game.''

Gordon caught seven passes for 151 yards against the Patriots, including one that he plucked off his shoe tops and one short slant on which he beat Talib, stiff-armed him and sprinted 70 yards for an 80-yard TD.

"I did a piece the week before when he broke that 95-yarder,'' said Irvin. "I said 'now watch -- it doesn't look like he's running, but no one catches up.' He caught the slant (in New England) and it's like he's nonchalantly running and Talib looks like he's about to tear both Achilles, both hamstrings he's running so hard and he can't catch the guy. He doesn't even look like he's running, but you can't catch the guy.''

Irvin, who was suspended five games in 1996 for cocaine possession and had other brushes with the law, said he identified with Gordon right away because of their rough upbringings and stories pasts. Starting last summer, he took Gordon under his win and mentored him.

"You always wonder at what point it clicks with a young man and that bulb goes off and he starts seeing things,'' said Irvin. "And for me, coming from where I've come from and the experiences that God allowed me to experience, I'm always looking for that guy that the light's going to come on and he's going to shock the world.

"Because truth be told, those are the great stories of the league. Those are the stories of inspiration and hope. I can tell other kids about Josh and he had his issues and situations, but he focused in and look what he became. I can use that to help a whole lot of other kids. That's why stories like that are the top stories in the league. This guy has overcome. He's an inspiration and he has to stay on the course and he'll give so many people inspiration and hope. I'm just so proud of him, I really am.''

Irvin said he's had to school Gordon on how to handle success in the NFL and all that comes with it.

"You come up in a hard situation and when you struggle with family members and friends through hard times, you feel like they're your obligation,'' said Irvin. " "You always capitulate and help them out and everything. And some people try to take advantage of you. You find yourself being loyal to a fault, getting in situations that you can no longer be in and you're not around the people that are looking after you and saying 'you shouldn't be doing this.' Instead, they're trying to get what they want.

"I told Josh, one thing I had to learn was, 'what God has for me is not for everybody. You can't take everybody where He has for you to go. You've got to be willing to let some people go. Anybody that's bringing you down, anybody that doesn't see what you have going, anybody that doesn't see the opportunity that you have before you, you've got to start letting them go.' Some people will try to hold you in a perpetual state of failure if you're not careful.''

Irvin said he knew Gordon would be in good hands with Turner and Chudzinski, with whom Irvin played at the University of Miami.

"Norv's been with me. He's a good man. I love him to death,'' said Irvin. "Chud's been with me and they know me. They know I did those things, but that's not who I am. So they can look at Josh and say, 'son, you made a bad decision but that's not who you are' because of their experience with me.

"I appreciate God setting up their experiences with me before he gave them Josh because it gives them the patience to say 'okay, what happened? Michael turned out okay. We can ride this out.' Stick it out with him and invest the time in him and he'll reciprocate. And he's starting to reciprocate it and that's what I like to see. That's what this game is really all about.''

Irvin plans to bring Gordon to Minnesota this summer to train with some of the top receivers in the NFL at Camp Fitzgerald. Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald started the camp at the University of Minnesota some years ago and it's grown from about half a dozen receivers to about 40. Instructors include Irvin and fellow Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Cris Carter. The camp begins in June and runs almost through the start of training camp.

"We work out in the morning and we hang out over at Larry's house and we go jet-skiiing and all of those things,'' said Irvin. "Then you start seeing what it takes. You see the work that Larry Fitzgerald's putting in and he's a $100 million guy. It's a great opportunity and a great time and I do want to see (Josh) over there.''

Irvin is convinced that Gordon will see the wisdom in attending.

"I think he's got that bug now,'' said Irvin. "He didn't know how good he could be. This season has proven a lot to Josh.''

And to the rest of the rest of the NFL.

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2013/12/hall_of_famer_michael_irvin_ca.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

[MD13]

Please, please let Josh go to Fitzgerald's camp. As long as he doesn't go home or to Miami with all the distractions those places bring.

 

[MJA1080]

Wow that is extremely high praise. That's awesome. The important thing is for Gordon not to get too big of a head with all of this. I think my favorite part of the whole article was the loyalty thing. When you're somewhere you want to be, you're that much better and it makes it easier to be a leader. Also, hanging with Fitz might be the best thing for Gordon even if they never did one thing football related. Talk about a positive influence.

 

[DJTJ]

"I did a piece the week before when he broke that 95-yarder,'' said Irvin. "I said 'now watch -- it doesn't look like he's running, but no one catches up.' He caught the slant (in New England) and it's like he's nonchalantly running and Talib looks like he's about to tear both Achilles, both hamstrings he's running so hard and he can't catch the guy. He doesn't even look like he's running, but you can't catch the guy.''

Probably the greatest way to describe what I say nearly everytime he starts "sprinting". He looks like he jogs past people.

 

[MD13]

"I did a piece the week before when he broke that 95-yarder,'' said Irvin. "I said 'now watch -- it doesn't look like he's running, but no one catches up.' He caught the slant (in New England) and it's like he's nonchalantly running and Talib looks like he's about to tear both Achilles, both hamstrings he's running so hard and he can't catch the guy. He doesn't even look like he's running, but you can't catch the guy.''

Probably the greatest way to describe what I say nearly everytime he starts "sprinting". He looks like he jogs past people.

Would all those reports about him not working hard during practice in the off-season change if he looked like he was running hard?

 

[godfather]

As really shitty as the Browns have been the last 200 years, its finally great to at least watch a superstar dominate out there. The Browns would lose my loyalty if they traded him. They've taken a shit on us for years, and I've put up with it. But I'll be damned if we're going to continue being shitty, and start losing the few great players we have.

 

[Frank Stallone]

Could not agree more. We finally have a guy that everyone is going to look at across the league and all fan bases. Haden is good, and well known, but Gordon is becoming a household name.

That Irvin praise is really awesome. So is the MMQB article.

 

[MGMT]

The way he looks so effortless when outrunning some of the greatest athletes the world has to offer is truly astonishing.

 

[3 Da Hard Way]

Why Gordon is NFL's best WR​

Cleveland wide receiver Josh Gordon averages 127.3 yards per game, the best in the NFL.

Aqib Talib is not an easy guy to burn.

One of the premier cornerbacks in the league this season, Talib of the New England Patriots has defended or intercepted 1.5 passes per game, best among any player with at least five games played.

Talib's 2013 résumé includes limiting some of the top weapons in the NFL. A.J. Green, Vincent Jackson, Steve Smith, Jimmy Graham and Demaryius Thomas all failed to reach five catches or 62 yards receiving against the Patriots, largely because of Talib.

His assignment for much of this past Sunday was Browns receiver Josh Gordon, the newly minted first player in NFL history to record back-to-back games with at least 200 receiving yards, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Gordon vs. Talib was a compelling matchup within the game, and it was largely a draw at halftime.

At 1:37 of the third quarter, that was no longer the case. Gordon's outside-in slant route created almost 2 yards of separation between him and Talib. Gordon turned a 9-yard Jason Campbell throw into an 80-yard touchdown, highlighting every facet of why Gordon is currently the best receiver in the league -- especially considering with whom he's playing.

Why Gordon is the best

Gordon's 127.3 yards per game average is the highest in NFL history among players with at least nine games played. He leads the league with 1,400 receiving yards despite having been suspended for the first two games of the season.

Josh Gordon among NFL's elite

2013 NFL season
Category Statistic NFL Rank
Yards PG 127.3 1st
Yds/Target 11.9 1st
YAC/Rec 8.3 1st
YA Contact/Rec 2.8 2nd*

*Calvin Johnson, 2.8

Gordon has 24 receptions of at least 20 yards, four more than anyone else. His 80-yard touchdown against the Patriots was no isolated incident, as Gordon's seven touchdowns of at least 20 yards ties Antonio Brown for the league lead. Only 11 other players have even half of that.

The Browns certainly have needed to throw. They have run 183 plays in the fourth quarter while trailing, sixth most in the league. As a result, Gordon also leads the league in fourth-quarter receiving yards (439). Only Jerricho Cotchery has more touchdown catches when his team is trailing (seven) than Gordon (six).

It certainly isn't Gordon's fault his team is trailing, but he has reaped the benefits -- a feat made all the more impressive by the shortcomings of his teammates.

Lackluster play from teammates

Gordon is the only receiver in the top 50 in receiving yards who has had at least 20 targets from three quarterbacks this season (Brandon Weeden, Campbell and Brian Hoyer). Browns quarterbacks have completed 60.2 percent of targets to Gordon this season, a higher percentage than to all other players (60.1) despite Gordon's average target being 7.5 yards deeper than everyone else's.

For comparison's sake, look at the quarterbacks for Gordon, and some of the league's top receivers when targeting each player's supporting cast (chart below): Brandon Marshall, A.J. Green, Demaryius Thomas, Vincent Jackson, Larry Fitzgerald, Dez Bryant, Calvin Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Antonio Brown and Andre Johnson.

It's not just the basic stats, either. Browns quarterbacks overthrow or underthrow 21 percent of non-Gordon targets, second worst in that data set despite having the lowest average throw distance on those passes (6.1 yards downfield).

Browns quarterbacks have posted a 36.2 Total QBR this season, fourth worst in the league. Only the Bills and Jets (both of whom have rookie quarterbacks), as well as the Jaguars' Chad Henne and Blaine Gabbert, fare worse. Weeden, in particular, ranked dead last this season (24.7, the only QB under 25).

Using his production from Weeden (who started Cleveland's first two games), we can see where Gordon would have ranked if he hadn't been suspended. Weeden has thrown 660 yards and four touchdowns in five games to Gordon this season (132 yards and 0.8 touchdowns per game). An extra 264 yards to Gordon's total would give him 1,664 receiving yards -- or more than 100 yards over Calvin Johnson's 2012 total (1,546) through Week 14.

Johnson had only five touchdowns through 13 games in his exceptional campaign last season. Gordon likely would have had almost twice as many (nine) if he had been active in Weeks 1 and 2.

Cleveland's level of quarterback play has put a lot of pressure on Gordon to make things happen when he does get the ball.

An even better microcosm of Gordon's season was two weeks earlier. In Week 12, the Browns lost 27-11 at home to the Steelers with Weeden and Campbell playing quarterback. The duo combined to go 14-of-17 for 237 yards and a touchdown targeting Gordon but 13-of-35 for 75 yards and an interception targeting everyone else.

The same quarterbacks averaged more than six times as many yards per attempt targeting Gordon (13.9) as the rest of Cleveland's skill players (2.1).

Gordon's gifts

After Gordon caught that pass, a stiff-arm to Talib at the Browns' 36-yard line created more than enough space for pay dirt. The separation Gordon created on his route and with his stiff-arm only increased after the catch (especially in the last 50 yards of the run).

Gordon's 80-yard touchdown was his longest since, well, the previous week. Gordon beat the Jaguars in Week 13 for a 95-yard touchdown catch that had 77 yards after the catch. He made the footrace look easy, splitting rookies Dwayne Gratz and Johnathan Cyprien.

Gratz was clocked at 4.47 in the 40-yard dash, slightly slower than Talib's 4.44 time coming out of Kansas. Neither had a chance at slowing Gordon, who recorded sub-4.4 times before the 2012 supplemental draft. Even assuming a defense has players fast enough to stay with Gordon, actually tackling him is no guarantee. No wide receiver in the league has more plays with at least 20 yards after the catch than Gordon this season (seven).

It's already been mentioned that Gordon leads the league in yards after catch per reception, but the names around him serve to highlight his rare physical tools. The average height and weight of the rest of the top 20 receivers is 6 feet, 202 pounds. Six-foot-3, 225-pound Gordon has exploited the speed-size mismatch all season.

Gordon's 2.8 yards after contact per reception isn't just second-best among wide receivers but also better than any tight end in football. Gordon has gained at least 5 yards after contact on 19 catches this season, among the best among wide receivers (DeSean Jackson has 22, Brian Hartline 19).

The Patriots knew this on Sunday. Talib is one of only six cornerbacks to record at least 400 plays in press coverage this season (435), but he gave Gordon plenty of space off the line playing without safety help. The fact that Talib deviated from a tactical strength was a testament to Gordon's success when pressed at the line.

It didn't work. Gordon finished with his seventh 100-yard game, catching seven passes for 151 yards and that touchdown. Relative to his season, however, Gordon was almost held in check.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10133696/why-josh-gordon-nfl-best-wr

 

[Frank Stallone]

Jesus Christ.

1-22?? That's astounding.

Shit. Should've just used this in my claim that he is very overrated.

 

[MoFlo]

-Gordon has made the Browns single season receiving yards record look like child's play. He's surpassed it by 275 with still 1 game to go.

-If Gordon has 10 catches Sunday, he'll set the Browns single season record for receptions. If he has 5, he'll set the Browns single season record for receptions by a WR (Kevin Johnson - 84).

-He demolished the Yds/Game single season franchise record. He's currently at 120.3. Even if he has 0 yards Sunday, he'll finish at 111.7. The franchise record is 85.7.

-He'll set the franchise single season record for R/G (with a minimum # of games set). Even if he has 0 Sunday, he'll finish at 5.7. Ozzie had 5.6 on a couple occasions. Jordan Norwood had 6.5 last season, but in only 2 games.

-If he gets 91+ yards Sunday, he'll pass Kellen Winslow for #23 on the Browns all-time receiving yards list. Winslow did it in 44 games, Sunday will be Gordon's 30th.

-First player in NFL history to have 80 catches, 1,500 yards, 9 TD, and 80 rushing yards in a season.

-5th player to get 130 catches, 2300 yards, and 10 TD in his first (2) NFL seasons (Moss, Rice, Holt, Green).

 

[Born 'N' Raised]

-5th player to get 130 catches, 2300 yards, and 10 TD in his first (2) NFL seasons (Moss, Rice, Holt, Green).

That's some elite company to be keeping. Hopefully he'll reward the team's faith in him and keep his nose clean in order to reach the potential he's shown. **crossing fingers**

 

[MalTalm]

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