DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum a True #1 WR.

I'm with you. Look at how the RG3 deal is turning out 2 seasons after the trade. As of now, there is a VERY clear winner and loser on that deal.

This is the third time I'm saying it. How pumped is St. Louis for this upcoming draft!?

jc.


i was wondering today at work, and i wanted to know what you guys thought.

so clearly, we aren't down for trading gordon for picks in th draft for whatever QB, just isn't worth it.

now.....lets say Jacksonville releases or is looking to trade Blackmon. if released, do we offer him a 1-2 year contract filled with incentives?

or trade with jacksonville a 2nd or maybe a 3rd if lombardi can wheel and deal it?

i have a feeling after this suspension, blackmon will walk the straight line for here on out.

i mean, campbell or hoyer starting, or whatever rookie QB we have would be SET at WR.

i think bess can be a great possession WR like he was suppose to be when he came here. and then of course we have Cameron, having the 2nd best season for TE this year.

Isn't his suspension indefinite?

I wouldn't give up a 7th round pick for that. I'd wait for him to be released and clear waivers. If that happens, then I'd offer him a veteran minimum contract with incentives and annual roster bonuses that is heavily laden with conduct clauses.

lets keep blackmon away from this team... cincy can have him or baltimore. or oakland.

Given the guys' talent, I'd be up for having Blackmon. He's worth a 2-year prove you are serious about being in the NFL contract. What's the worse that can happen? We cut the guy?

Going have to agree with this. No thanks to Blackmon. He's that person that truly is what everyone criticizes and spites Gordon for "what could be" and that is irrelevant to his talent.

Man, I want no part of Blackmon, despite his talent.

I have this vision of us signing him, and him talking Gordon into going out one Friday night and us having no receivers for a long, long time.

There are some calculated risks you take, and others you don't. I see this as a risk not worth taking.

Cleveland Browns' Josh Gordon finally believes he's Pro Bowl worthy after NFL-record 774 yards in past four games | cleveland.com
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ss..._special-report


BEREA, Ohio -- All it took for Josh Gordon to finally believe he belongs in the Pro Bowl conversation was to set the NFL record with 774 yards in the last four games, to break the Browns' single-season receiving record with 1,400 yards and to blow past Detroit's Calvin Johnson for most yards in the NFL this season.

That's not to mention his league-leading 127.4 yards per game and 19.7 per catch, or his NFL-best 24 catches of 20 yards or more.

“Hopefully with the rest of the season -- if the numbers stay where they are and I can do good individually -- yeah, I definitely expect to be there,'' Gordon said of making the all-star squad.

It marked a dramatic departure from the last two times Gordon was asked that question over the past three weeks.

In the days leading up to the Pittsburgh game Nov. 24, he said, "I think it's too early for that, honestly, but hopefully one day I can reach that goal as well."

The following week, after racking up 237 yards against the Steelers, he still wasn't feeling it.

"I've still got a lot more to prove and if it's going to be, I hope it's an undeniable-type thing and I know I deserved it,'' he said before the Jaguars game Dec. 1. "I don't want it to be just hearsay and build up a hype around it for something that's not true. I definitely want to go out there and prove it.''

How's a club-record 261 yards against the Jaguars for trying to prove it? And if that wasn't evidence enough, his 151 against the Patriots pretty much clinched the deal in his mind. He's also piled up five touchdown passes during his blistering four-game stretch, including an 80-yard catch and run against the Patriots and his league-long 95-yarder against the Jaguars.

Even the undiva-like Gordon had to admit, in his quiet voice, that he's playing right up there with the best of 'em this season. To put it in perspective, his 774 yards in the last four games equal Pro Bowl Larry Fitzgerald's total -- for all 13 games.

"I really think I am, that’s for sure and hopefully I can stay there and keep performing at that level,'' he said.

Browns cornerback Joe Haden, who's faced the best receivers in the NFL the past four seasons, has no doubt in his mind that Gordon -- affectionately known as JG to his teammates -- belongs in the Pro Bowl this year.

"JG? Oh, for sure,'' said Haden. "He's playing on another level right now. He’s doing the right things. He’s making all the plays he has to. I mean 230, 260, 150, there’s nothing else you can say. Nobody else is doing it.”

Fans still haven't caught on, as Gordon hasn't yet cracked the top 10 in fan Pro Bowl voting on NFL.com. Players and coaches vote Dec. 23-26.

What's more Gordon is doing it at the age of 22 -- after getting kicked out of Baylor and Utah and missing his last two years of college ball.

"He can get so much better,'' said Haden. "I hope he knows how good he can get. I try to tell him and I think he's getting it. When he locks in and he comes out there and he goes hard, he just imposes his will basically. He's big, fast, strong, can catch, and when the ball comes his way -- JG's different. He's just different.''

Gordon has bolted up the charts so quickly -- despite missing his first two games -- that Haden now has him ranked right behind Johnson (1,348 yards this season) and alongside Cincinnati's A.J. Green.

"We were talking about it the other day,'' said Haden. "I was like 'JG keeps doing his thing.' I say Calvin is still Calvin, but JG is in the A.J. (range). Calvin and A.J. (and JG) have the same level of dominance because they come out there, they do their thing every week, you have to prepare for A.J., you have to prepare for JG. He just jumps out of the screen, like 'alright, we have to stop 12.' When people start worrying about you and gameplanning for you, that's when you know you're a problem.''

Would Haden venture to describe the second-year pro as elite already?

"Man, he's doing things nobody's done,'' said Haden. "If other receivers were doing this stuff, then other people would be like, 'They're stepping up, they're becoming elite.' I mean, he's just becoming better and better and better. He's still young, he's 22 years old and he's handling it. He's got 1,400 receiving yards (in 11 games). Numbers don't lie.''

Former Browns general manager Tom Heckert, now with the Broncos, deserves credit for taking a chance on Gordon in the 2012 supplemental draft after he has failed three marijuana tests and gotten kicked out of three colleges. Plenty of folks inside and out of the league scoffed when he used a second-round pick in the 2013 draft to land him, but Heckert felt strongly at the time it was worth it and he's been proven right.

"I thought he was a top-10 pick and after spending time with him and speaking to (Baylor coach Art Briles) I liked him even more,'' Heckert said in an email response. "So we wanted to make sure we got him. I would have regretted losing him to another team and didn't want to risk it with a player like Josh. He's a great kid that has made some mistakes, but I trusted him when he told me to my face that he would do the right things and he really wanted to come to Cleveland and being a part of the turn around we were trying to accomplish.''

Gordon's 151 yards against the Patriots were even more impressive because they came against premier cornerback Aqib Talib, who's been shutting down top receivers all season.

"I look at (Talib) as one of the best players in the league and he’s been doing a great job covering big, physical, in-your-face (receivers),'' said Haden. "Honestly, you've got to come in there and play JG. You've got to have a really good game. You have to be ready to play him.''

Gordon's 151 yards were also the most against the Patriots this season, and only the third 100-yard receiver they've allowed in 2013. His 80-yard TD against Talib was the longest against them this season, and one of only two TDs of 50 yards or more the Patriots surrendered this year.

"It happens to the best of us, but what I can say?'' said Haden. "You've got to give the credit to JG and not really beat down Talib. It's just a really good day from him and Talib just didn't really have as good of a day.''

Haden knew that Gordon would be off to the races once he caught that little slant and then stiff-armed Talib 5 yards later. He ran about 70 yards of the 80-yard score.

“Once he didn’t tackle him as soon as he caught it, he got that little touch on him, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s about to run away from this dude for sure,' '' said Haden. "That’s a bad feeling when you just can’t catch somebody.”

Gordon's outburst -- which featured a 34-yard run on a reverse and a clutch 19-yard catch on third and 17 on the Browns' final TD drive -- came after Gordon boldly predicted he'd "definitely make more plays'' than Talib.and a 34-yard on a reverse --

"Man, that will give a cornerback a lot of motivation,'' said Haden. "You see stuff like that. I know Talib probably saw it, but that's how (Gordon) felt. If you can talk and go out there and handle, it man, more power to you.''

Has watching Gordon light it up over the past four weeks made Haden glad he doesn't have to cover him?

"No,'' said Haden. "He's doing really, really good but I fear no man.''

Gordon will share the field during Sunday's home finale against the Bears with a pair of 1,000-yard receivers in Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffries.

"He’s similar to Marshall,'' said Haden. "The thing JG has that’s different than all these big receivers is he’s legit fast. He’s 4.3, that’s just something that’s a little different. These big guys are moving, they’re 4.4 and 4.5-low, but JG is legitimately 4.3. So when you can run away from people the way he can, being that big, it puts a whole different thing into the game.''

Marshall, who's had his own brushes with the law and off-field issues, has admired Gordon from afar.

"The thing that I’m most impressed with is you take a kid, I believe had some blemishes on his record, some character issues coming in, seeing him really get it early,'' he said. "That’s what I’m most impressed about. Not the stuff on the field but the things that he’s doing off of it. From a distance, I don’t know what’s going on personally inside of his mind or in his home but what I can see is him maturing right before our eyes, and that’s impressive. My hat goes off to that. We all know what you do off the field affects on it. If he can continue to grow as a man and a teammate, the sky’s the limit for this kid.''

Marshall said his advice to Gordon heading into the offseason is to understand how big the platform and the opportunity is.

"Sometimes we get caught up so much into the limelight and the money and the jewelry and all the women and things like that and we lose focus,'' he said. "Sometimes it’s from an ignorance standpoint where we just don’t know. The advice I would give any kid, a young kid going into the offseason, is really surround yourself with good people and understand that one wrong move, one wrong turn, can lead to disaster. I really like this kid Josh.''

Gordon acknowledged that he's gotten more media attention in recent weeks but that it won't change him.

"Everybody has been supporting me from the beginning and they will always continue to support me and that's pretty much all I'm expecting,'' he said. "Keep being the same person I am, but I don't expect anything greater than what I've gotten."

Some really nice words by Marshall; I have a new level of respect for him.

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.

A great read, thanks!


Another note to put Josh's into perspective (from Sports Illustrated):

If he can total at least 125 receiving yards against the Bears, Gordon will tie Calvin Johnson (2012) and Pat Studstill (1966) as the only players to ever rack up at least 125 yards for five consecutive games. Despite his two-game suspension to start the season, Gordon has seven games of 125-plus yards this year, and he's one away from tying Johnson (2012) and Hall of Famer Lance Alworth (1965) for the most ever in a single season.

Additionally, if he puts up 126 or more, his record for most yards in a 4 game span will increase.

Here's another fun fact :

Josh Gordon is currently averaging more yards per game than Calvin Johnson did in his record breaking season of 2012.

Josh Gordon has 1400 yards in 11 games for an average of 127.3 yards per game.

Calvin Johnson had 1,964 in 16 games for an average of 122.8 yards per game.

Wow. Now we are making him an American hero.

on page 5 about 1/2 way down I listed about 10-20 different stats that is kicking butt in

Man, I sure hope that Irvin is right in this case ...... (kind of a repeat ... but expounded upon ...)

Hall of Famer Michael Irvin calls Cleveland Browns' Josh Gordon "receiver MVP of 2013'' and multiple 2,000-yard receiver | cleveland.com
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ss..._special-report

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, the self-proclaimed 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 NFL.

So the Playmaker thinks Gordon is more gifted than he was.. sure hope hes right.. sure appears that way.

j/c...

All I know is this past Sunday in a frigid slick ball condition - a simple catch - was maybe the best catch I have ever seen, It was at that catch not all the stats that has convinced me this kid is no mirage and a very special talent - even more than any Homer could have expected.

It was a simple pattern not too deep I believe a crossing pattern. The throw was Behind him and below the knees. He just put both hands low and back and just snatched that pass without breaking stride as if was place a foot in front of him just at shoulder level. Just a simple play that won't make a hi-light reel but it was something not many ever to play this game could do and make it look so effortless.

JMHO - man lets get this freaking QB thingy down and start winning championships!

I don't believe it is any different.

People on here make fun of sportswriters and articles all of the time. Most of the time it holds some merit.

Quote:

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I think Weeden throws way to hard making it difficult for Little

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On one hand, I get where folks come from with statements like this, but on the other hand I'm like "What??!! No excuse - go ask any of Favre's old receivers what catching a fastball is about".

Or John Elway. lol Man, he burned his receivers hands with some of his fastballs.

You know, I would go along with your thoughts on little had I not have witnessed otherwise.

The last half of last season he was catching the ball quite well. his drops went way down. That's why I had so much hope for him this season. Then? Back to the drops. Same QB.

Had I not seen this with my own eyes, I might feel differently. But your scenario just doesn't pass the eye test with me.

JMHO

I like watching the Bears and Packers on occasion. Greg Little reminds me of James Jones.

I really don't promote keeping him or cutting him. I see him as marginal. Most players 'get it" in or before their third season. This is Little's third season and I simply don't see him "getting it".

I see zero comparison between him and Dez Bryant at all. Bryant has always ranked as a much better talent than Little and say what you will, I would care very little if he was kept or cut after this season.

As of now we have no real choice but to keep him considering our WR situation. But that's all subject to change. The fact is, the guy has hands of stone far more often than not. And that simply doesn't work in the NFL.

What I really don't get with Little is how he seemed to completely turn the corner last year. He started catching everything thrown his way, and from all reports, ran the best routes on the team by the end of the season. (granted he didn;t have huge competition in the route running department, but still .....)

He worked his ass off in training camp. He got to practices early, and stayed after working with the QBs, and even with other position groups on specific skills. He looked to be everything you would want in a receiver, when the whole picture was taken into account.

Then he stepped foot on the field, and everything seemed to fall apart.

Last year he appeared to have gotten a handle on the mental side of things ...... and then this season he lost it badly.

I really don't know why or even how this could happen. I hope that he can somehow manage to get back on track and return to playing really well ..... because I like to see players who work their asses off have some success. Hopefully Little will find that success here.