He's Randy Moss 2.0 if he's playing 16 games. Plain and simple. He's the most gifted WR that TB has played with since Moss in 07. If you don't think they'll lean HEAVY on a healthy and full involved Gordon you're crazy. His numbers over a full season of 1200 yards were after basically not playing football for the most part of 4 seasons. And yet.... he still did that. Give him an offseason to train with Tom and we're talking about Josh Gordon here. He'll be a WR1 if he actually plays (which I doubt he does!) even 14 games.
:sigh:
He wasn’t on pace for 1200, he was on pace for 58rec for 1050 yds and 4.4 TDS (NE #’s extrapolated go 16G - That’s 188pts or WR27... barely a WR3)
I'll just leave these stats here:
Moss w/ Brady: 21ppg (avg over 32 games)
Gordon w/ Brady: 11.8ppg (avg over 11 games)
"But Gordon needs time to Jive with Brady"
Moss Year 1 w/ Brady: 24.1ppg (His peak with NE)
Gordon Year 1 w/ Brady: 11.8ppg
"But Gordon hadn't been playing"
He'd had 10 MONTHS (6 game weeks + healthy offseason) to shake the rust off
Moss was coming off 3 years of career low utilization (50.3rec/yr)
Moss was a legit constent CAREER baller:
Moss career: 17.9ppg (21ppg w/ Brady - +3.1ppg)
9 Seasons w/ Double Digit TDs, 10 seasons with 1000+ yds
Gordon had one stellar year over half a decade ago, and has been mediocre outside that:
Gordon outside peak year: 9.5ppg (11.8ppg w/ Brady - +2.3ppg)
ZERO seasons w/ Double Digit TDs, 1 season with 1000+ yds
Moss was a TD Machine his entire career, Gordon never has been:
8.6% of Gordon's career receptions were for TD's (7.5% under Brady - caught 17.6% of Brady's total TD passes)
15.8% of Moss's career receptions were for TDs (19.3% under Brady - caught 46% of Brady's total TD passes)
This isn't even to get into the fact that the New England offense has fundamentally changed, and continues to trend toward a more balanced offense, and Josh Gordon is over half a decade removed from being considered a WR1, let alone a transcendent one like Moss. Then factor in the current suspension, as well as the extraordinarily high risk of RE-Suspension, again... IF he's even activated...
Gordon provides exceptional real world NFL value to Brady if he can play (and I hope he does, but Gordon is fantasy fools gold outside a late round flier.
He has a fantasy ADP right now that puts him in the 17th round in PPR... paying more than a 15th round pick for him is insane, and even then only if you have deep rosters or an IR/Inactive slot you can stash him in.