Browns: Team was right to move on from Josh Gordon

Josh Gordon was supposed to be the next great receiver in football and the Cleveland Browns made the right call to let him walk.

Josh Gordon is once again looking at life without football, but this time for good. The current Seattle Seahawk was supposed to be ready to begin practicing and getting ready for games but the NFL has made it clear that Gordon is not eligible to return after all; this just days after it was reported that Gordon had been cleared to return to the field.

The news broke Tuesday night that the NFL has notified both Seattle and Gordon that things were on hold, again.

"Gordon and the Seahawks were notified Tuesday that the NFL determined the receiver had not satisfied the terms of his conditional reinstatement, another source told ESPN."

Gordon’s career was once promising and he was someone that the entire NFL had eyes on, especially after his breakout sophomore campaign in Cleveland during 2013. With three different quarterbacks and a first-year head coach in Rod Chudzinski, the Browns saw their fledgling receiver dominate the league. Gordon put up 1,646 yards on 87 catches and nine touchdowns. All this while seeing Jason Campbell, Brandon Weedon, and Brian Hoyer throwing him the ball. The even more obtuse part of that season was that he wasn’t the only break out star, seeing tight end Jordan Cameron catch 80 passes for 917 yards and seven touchdowns.

No one else, not even a running back, would combine for 600+ total yards either rushing or catching the ball.

The offense was horrible but there was Gordon (and Cameron), dominating the field. Then he started his string of positive tests. The NFL suspended him for 10 games in 2014, the year the Browns went 7-9. Everyone was optimistic that the Browns were finally ready to turn the corner, they just needed Gordon to be free and clear. Then he got suspended by the team to close out the last game in 2014 and then would miss the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons due to constant failures.

The sad part is, none of this was a surprise, as he dealt with this stuff in college.

He would finally return to the field in 2017 as a man that was given yet another chance. He played in five games and played well, considering Deshone Kizer was his quarterback. Then in 2018, the Browns had another issue with Gordon that prompted the team to move on from him finally.

The Browns traded him and a seventh-round draft pick in 2019 that became kicker Austin Seibert, who is no longer on the team.

Gordon would find his way to New England and then to Seattle, dealing with NFL regulation issues along the way. Now the embattled 29-year-old may have finally had his last chance to return to the NFL.

Even though the Browns only got a kicker, who was let go so early into his career, in exchange for Gordon, it was still the better deal. He’s a persistent headache who can’t get out of his own way and will never have truly lived up to his potential, even if he goes to the XFL or FCFL after his time in Seattle.

And to think, the Browns wasted a 2013 second-round pick on him.