Cleveland Browns superstar wide receiver Josh Gordon made his highly-anticipated return to the starting lineup last week against the Atlanta Falcons after being suspended, and he didn’t disappoint. The Falcons knew they would see a steady dose of Gordon, and he was fed 16 times by Brian Hoyer, who was a bit too anxious to get his best weapon involved. Gordon will only get better as he gets back into the swing of things, but he, as expected, didn’t really show any rust, hauling in eight passes for 120 yards, showing off his electric ability.
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Like most elite receivers, Gordon doesn’t have any major weaknesses in his game, but Browns head coach Mike Pettine believes, for as amazing as Gordon is, that he could improve in one facet of the game: contested catches.
Pettine said, via the Akron Beacon Journal’s Nate Ulrich, “But just having been with Josh through the spring and through the training camp, if you have to look for a weakness, and there isn’t many, but this is one — that aggressive part of it, kind of being that power forward when that ball is up in the air and going up and attacking it.”
I hope people don’t take Pettine’s comments the wrong way, because he is simply mentioning one part of Gordon’s game that needs to be improved. Everybody recognizes that this guy is an elite player, but even the best could always afford to improve in one area. I’m sure Pettine will get Gordon to focus on getting even better at winning 50-50 jump balls downfield, because that will further increase Hoyer’s confidence in Gordon and help the offense turn potential turnovers into potential touchdowns.
It’s also interesting to note these comments when talking about Gordon’s impact beyond 2014, because Johnny Manziel is still expected to be the QB of the future, though that’s still unclear at this point. In any case, Manziel loves taking 50-50 shots, and he certainly did that a lot with the talented Mike Evans, who always won them and clearly earned Manziel’s utmost trust on those throws. If Gordon can improve in that facet of the game, then that would be a big boost down-the-road for Manziel at QB.