Why new Patriots wide receiver Josh Gordon is an amazing player

1 New England Patriots Hoodie ,646. That’s how many yards receiving Josh Gordon produced during the 2013 season. An enormous number. How enormous? Enough to clock in at 13th overall when it comes to the single season record for receiving yards. Here is a list of the wide receivers in NFL history who have produced more yards in a single year than Gordon did in 2013:9. In the history of the NFL only 9 players have produced more yards in a single season than Gordon. He is in the elite top 10 pantheon, its majority will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame at some point in time. What makes Gordon’s accomplishment all the more impressive is that it occurred while catching passes from Brandon Weeden and Jason Campbell. Who? Exactly. So how was Josh Gordon able to produce at such an elite level? The biggest reason is that he is a physical freak: he is 6’3, 225 lbs with a massive wingspan and large bear paws for hands. If you were designing the perfect receiver in a lab he would look eerily close to Gordon. He also posted an impressive vertical and broad jump – impressive, but it is his speed that makes Gordon elite. Gordon posted a pedestrian 4.5 40-yard dash at his pro day. Normally that would be a bit of a warning sign. Pro days already tend to favor the player with generous scores so it would be reasonable to assume he was even slower. Reasonable. But wrong. Gordon possesses blazing 4.3 caliber speed, a unicorn level athleticism for a man of his size. The speed earned Gordon the appropriate nickname “Flash”.“But PC,” I hear you say, “we already have an elite athlete in Cordarrelle Patterson! You have waxed for weeks that you think Patterson is a gadget player who will not reach his peak. Why do we need another washed up receiver who can’t make good on his athletic gifts?” Patience. I will explain. Josh Gordon can’t run routes. Josh Gordon has great physicality. Josh Gordon has good vision. “PC! You are literally describing Patterson.”Let me finish.Josh Gordon is great at creating separation. Josh Gordon has great hands. Josh Gordon makes great plays on the ball. These skills separate him from the likes of Patterson and propel him into the realm of elite talents. There are really only two skills that matter for a wide receiver: getting open and catching the ball. Josh Gordon can get open and he can catch the ball as good as any wide receiver in the NFL. That’s why he has posted a 1,646 yards receiving in a single season and Patterson has never cracked 500 yards. One of the stats that PFF loves to throw around is that when defenses play man coverage against Brady they have a lot more success. Ramsey, in his post game interview of the 2017 AFCC, specifically cited the teams move away from man to zone coverage during the fourth quarter as part of the reason Brady was able to stage a comeback. If they had continued to play man, Ramsey seemed to be suggesting, they would have won the game. The Chiefs are a team that have given the Patriots fits in the past and their defense runs man coverage more than any other in the NFL. PFF and Ramsey would suggest there was a relationship there. Why is man coverage successful against Brady? One of the reasons is that our receivers legitimately are not that good. There isn’t a single wide receiver on this roster who can consistently square up against a talented corner and win. The only exception to that rule is Gronk. You cannot get away with man coverage because Gronk is almost impossible to guard man to man. You need only look at the Steelers game last year to see what happens when you try to put a safety one on one against Gronk. But expecting Gronk to carry the game every single time is unrealistic. Furthermore, you can occasionally find freaks like the Chiefs Eric Berry who can do decent job covering Gronk one on one. What does this have to do with Josh Gordon? Well, Josh Gordon squared up against one of the best corner’s in the NFL last year and beat him clean for the catch. There is a good breakdown from Football Outsiders reviewing some of the limited snaps Gordon played last season. In one of the clips, Gordon is matched up in man-to-man against Casey Heyward, Pro Football Focus’ top ranked corner’s from the 2017 season. Gordon gets separation and than leaps in the air for a catch. This is what the Patriots offense is missing. That’s why the Patriots traded for him. Keep in mind that Outsider film is from last year. Gordon has not played a lot of football but it’s clear he has plenty of juice left. He’s only 27 years old. I don’t care that he doesn’t run routes well. Do you think Randy Moss and Brandin Cooks ran complicated routes? No. They ran go routes all day every day and they were excellent weapons. I’m exaggerating some but not by a lot. Gordon can also do a lot of the things Patterson is asked to do but with the added advantage of other teams not knowing he is going to do it because he is capable of so much more. I don’t care that he only has a little over fifty percent catch percentage. Do you remember who was throwing to him? Exactly you already forgot their names. His percentage could easily increase by ten percent with the pinpoint accuracy of the GOAT. To put it simplyGordon can provide the speed of Cooks, the yards after reception of Patterson, and the man coverage busting skills of Gronk. Let me be blunt: if Josh Gordon keeps his nose clean and returns to “Flash” status the Patriots are almost assuredly going to another Super Bowl. Imagine adding Rob Gronkowski to the 2007 offense with Randy Moss and Wes Welker? Gordon is not as good as Moss and Julian Edelman is not as good as Welker, but Gronk more than makes up for the difference. You might think this is an exaggeration but it really is not. How can defenses possibly defend against an offense putting Gronk Cheap Customized New England Patriots Jerseys , Edelman, Gordon, White/Michel and Dorsett on the field at the same time? There is no defense in the NFL that is equipped to guard that much size, speed, and quickness. If Gordon lived up to his full potential you are not just talking about an elite offense you are potentially talking about an historic one. 1,646. This is not hyperbole. This is an empirical fact. Gordon has empirically proven he can be that good. It just doesn’t matter. 9. That’s the chance I give of this trading working out. 9 percent. The Browns are 1-32-1 and they were ready to cut Gordon straight up. The most they could get for him, despite numerous teams bidding for the trade and Gordon possessing all the talent in the world, was a basement 5th round pick from a team in the same conference they are. Gordon is a headcase. I sympathize deeply with him. You are talking about a kid who was abusing Xanax at 13. He isn’t beating up women or committing crimes. He has a serious illness that he cannot seem to overcome. I hope he can get better but I don’t think he will.This is the player who basically bragged about posting 100 yard games while he was drunk. Gordon doesn’t just run bad routes, he runs the wrong routes because he’s high. This is the guy who shows up late to meetings and doesn’t study film or the playbook. Gordon has empirically proven he is a far better receiver than Patterson will ever be but he will probably produce less than him this year because he cannot beat his inner demons and focus on football. Gordon claimed his goal was to be the greatest receiver ever. With Tom Brady throwing him the ball, Josh McDaniels being the perfect coordinator for his skills, and Gronk drawing attention he could be well on his way to achieving that dream. But I won’t hold my breath. Chances are all this hype will be just that. Hype. With no substance behind it. The best part of the trade will be reading this article and day dreaming about what could be. Gordon is the lottery tickets you buy to dream about an early retirement but fully knowing when you scratch it you will have just wasted twenty bucks. And yet if it works out... this team is going to the Super Bowl. Not a bad trade for a 5th round pick eh?Patriots vs.Lions: Fan Notes from the Game Hoo boy.Let’s just get this out of the way: the Patriots got embarrassed last night. They looked completely lost, they were sloppy, they got pushed around and out-muscled at absolutely every position, and had absolutely no business being on the field with the Lions last night.The Lions. Yikes.Was the Sunday Night Football intro always just one big ad for Pepsi, or is that a new thing? I legit don’t know, as I’ve actively tried to avoid the Faith Hill/Jewel/Pink/whoever preamble for a while now, but I was completely out of stuff to do by the time the game rolled around and made the mistake of tuning in.If your name is Jim-Bob Cooter, you have exactly two career options: football coach or rider mower salesman. Glad to see that he made it.Not glad to see him completely destroy the Patriots defense...but to be honest, I feel like I could have called a successful game plan last night.New England really needs to stop receiving these opening kickoffs. Maybe that’s why they suck so bad right now.The only thing worse than New England’s performance last night was that off-neon green whatever it is they decided to put on the field on third downs. It’s absurd and completely unnecessary. I would have loved to be in the production meeting when that green zone came into fruition. I feel like there was a guy who hadn’t contributed anything to the team since he was hired in the offseason and was on his last strike http://www.newenglandpatriotsteamonline.com/ryan-allen-jersey , so as a Hail Mary he just kind of threw out, “maybe we add another color to the screen?” I may as well break down the offense now and get it over with.....Um...Stretch run for no gain? Blown up screen? One decent drive per game?OK, that was easy. Moving on.The big issue with the offense right now is that it’s incredibly predictable. Part of that is the early season jitters and everyone finding their stride, and another part of that is the lack of depth at receiver position. It’s nothing but stretch runs and screens, and then when those don’t work they have no choice but to go for a middle crosser. I have absolutely no worries about what this offense will do when the games start to matter, but right now the NFL is a pool and the Patriots keep dipping a toe in to see if it’s too cold.Another real problem is how the receivers can’t get anything remotely close to resembling separation. There were plenty of plays last night where Tommy B had time to throw, but nobody was open.New England, three and out. Opponent, long, sustained drive that ends in points. Sound familiar? Being a Pats fan in September stinks. October through February? Juuuust fine. But man...these first few games are always rough.As for the defense...Never thought I’d see LeGarrette Blount torching the Pats as a receiver.I did, however, think I’d see receivers out in the flat go for big gains. Lateral movement is such an Achilles heel for these linebackers.The Lions didn’t even need a third down on their first TD of the day. I don’t know what’s worse: September 2017 when receivers were 10 to 15 yards open, or September 2018 when teams are just imposing their will.Kerryon Johnson averaged six yards per carry and have over 100 on the day. If that’s not bad enough, I can point to a handful of plays where all 200 pounds of him literally dragged Lawrence Guy, Danny Shelton, Malcom Brown, or sometimes all three for a few extra yards before he was brought down. I’m not sure how that’s even scientifically possible, but here we find ourselves.NFL football in 2018 has absolutely zero flow. The 1st quarter took 20 minutes, the 2nd took six days Authentic Jonathan Jones Jersey , the 3rd took 25 seconds, and the 4th took an hour. What happens in between is a series of questionable flags, unwatchable commercials, a bunch of weird colors, and watered down play. Last year it took me until mid-October to start questioning if I had better things to do with my Sundays.The red flag is officially up and waving furiously on Dont’a Hightower. He looks unbearably slow and constantly winded. The rust should be off by now and usually rust comes in the form of missed reads and muffed tackles. It doesn’t come in the form of getting smoked around the edge and getting shoved violently backwards on blitzes.Sony Michel didn’t do much as a short yardage back, did he. I don’t know why they keep running off-tackle on those plays...either do the sneak or go up the gut.Chris Collinsworth on Lions owner Martha Firestone Ford: “There’s just a difference when there’s a lady in the room, ins’t there?” Yikes, Chris. You can’t say things like that in 2018! I can think of a whole slew of college students that would be VIOLENTLY offended by that statement had they been watching the game last night instead of busy protesting Rice Krispies for discriminating against giants.Through three weeks now, I can think of exactly one instance where anybody not named Tom Brady showed any kind of emotion on or off the field, and that was last night when Deatrich Wise sacked Matt Stafford to fire everyone up. On the very next play, Jahwan Bentley picked off Stafford to set up New England’s only touchdown of the day. As of right now, this team has no teeth. No toughness. Nobody not named Tom Brady getting riled up on or off the field.Nobody upset when an opponent marches right down the field with ease and scores. The defense looked like it was just kind of killing time before the game ended, and you never want to see that. Somebody needs to step up.What may be most frustrating at the moment is that, every once in a while, the Patriots will look good. They play with urgency and passion and move the ball well. And then they remember to not give a crap anymore and go back to the stretch run and screen.Man... Golden Tate would have been something else as a Patriot. I love that guy.The great thing about a loss like this one is the smoking hot takes that are already coming from all angles. You have your typical Patriots fans who never grew up in the non-Brady era already calling for an end to the season. You have your media folks chasing clicks and pageviews with the end of days talk. I’m sure you have your Chiefs and Dolphins fans chirping away as they race towards their inevitable 9-7 finishes.Today’s Fan Notes were negative, because the Patriots deserve negativity this morning. That said, I’m still very staunchly in the “Patriots Will Be Fine” camp.That said... I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t occasionally looking across the lake at the ever-growing Camp Not Our Year and wondering what they’re serving for lunch tomorrow.We’re on to Miami.