Josh Gordon gets NFL Spin Zone Player of the Week
Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon (12) is tackled by Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Alan Ball (23) after making a catch in third quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
Week 13 was filled with some jaw-dropping performances, as players such as Alshon Jeffery, Rob Gronkowski, Josh Gordon, Adrian Peterson, Peyton Manning, and Ndamukong Suh shined throughout the week. It was almost impossible to choose one guy (I mean, it was hard enough only naming six players in the last sentence), but I decided to go with Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon, who posted his second straight 200-yard performance.
Gordon was simply magnificent against Dwayne Gratz and the Jacksonville Jaguars pass defense, and Gordon is an incredibly dynamic, speed player who is dangerous in the open field. He’s agile, and the Jaguars found it very difficult to tackle him. Part of that was their own doing, but another part of it was Gordon’s ability to make defenders miss. He racked up a grand total of 261 yards, and it’s crazy to think that he did it on “only” ten catches. I mean, ten catches is a substantial number, but that’s a monstrous average of 26.1 yards per completion.
In his second season in the league, Gordon has blossomed despite some hitches around him. He was suspended for two games and has had to deal with errant passes from Brandon Weeden for a number of games this season, but Gordon is still the league’s second-leading receiver and became the first player in history to have back-to-back games with at least 200 yards of receiving.
Weeden was 24-40, but he completed two-thirds of his passes when targeting Josh Gordon, as the Baylor product hauled in a staggering ten of fifteen targets for an even more impressive 261 yards. If you crunch the numbers, Weeden, who averaged a hefty 9.3 yards per attempt thanks to Gordon’s playmaking ability, had an average of 17.4 yards per attempt when throwing it at Gordon. That’s a mind-boggling total, and it just speaks volumes to how dominant Gordon has been.
To be honest with you, you can only wonder the kinds of stats Gordon could produce if he had a star quarterback like Ben Roethlisberger- or even a guy like Joe Flacco- throwing it to him. He now has six games this season with at least 125 receiving yards, and his yards per game average is actually at 125. This guy is at the top of his game, and he’s so good that he’s worth the substance abuse concerns.