Josh Gordon Reinstated (Again)

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Seems like a strange way to free up the cap space, but Bill has been known to do the unconventional.
But why today? You don't get the cap relief until he's healthy anyway. You can't activate Harry for a week at least.

I may be wrong, but I feel like it has to be that they really needed the spot right now.
 

TFisNEXT

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He had 60 catches for 1000 yards in 17 games here.
At the end of the day, that's prob about 50 catches and 900 yards more than most people thought he would produce. It's too bad he couldn't stay 100% clean and 100% healthy during his time because he has a lot of talent.
 

RedOctober3829

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With all the injuries they need the roster spots for depth. If Gordon isn’t ready for a couple weeks, best to use the spot on another position until Harry is ready. Gordon did not have the same explosion as even last year so it’s not like they are losing that much. He’s a good kid and I hope he lands on his feet. He’s very easy to root for.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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My wife, who is more intense about the Patriots than I am, will be crushed by this
It's a really sad thing. It was a feel good story. Winning is the ultimate feel good story, but if you can have both kinds it's even better.

They stuck with him for so long, that this is just really hard to understand. If he is playing again in a couple of weeks, I may never understand it.

Being a Patriots fan means never getting too attached to anyone, for sure, but I really enjoyed rooting for this guy.
 

lexrageorge

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But why today? You don't get the cap relief until he's healthy anyway. You can't activate Harry for a week at least.

I may be wrong, but I feel like it has to be that they really needed the spot right now.
I'm curious why they need that roster spot now. Unless and until there's a move, they don't need to open one up.

The inactives last week were Burkhead, Chung, Bennett, Cunningham, Izzo, LaCosse, and Gordon. Seems like Mason may be inactive for the Browns, but my guess is that they would activate Cunningham or Chung in his place. They can't activate Harry until Week 9 anyway, and could have actually waited until after the bye.

There's something going on other than the 53rd roster spot.
 

CoffeeNerdness

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If he's been playing with bone bruises maybe his prognosis is that he can get back to healthy enough but not 100% and football-wise the Pats are fine with moving on from that level of JG because he really wasn't playing all that great. His agent is feeding Yates their side of the story to get Josh another payday. If JG could get back to 100% health I don't think they'd be cutting him.
 

BigSoxFan

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Fucking A. Who’s the asshole TE who missed the block and set this all in motion?
 

Ralphwiggum

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Assuming he can come back at 100% (or as close to that as any NFL player gets mid-season) I don't get this as a football move. But what the fuck do I know.

That said, I don't think he's looked great since Week 1. I assumed it was due to injury.
 

j44thor

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Fucking A. Who’s the asshole TE who missed the block and set this all in motion?
Are you referring to the play where Brady held the ball longer than Darnold had if you combine about 15 pass plays Monday? That wasn't a missed block that was rookie level pocket awareness.
 

RedOctober3829

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Assuming he can come back at 100% (or as close to that as any NFL player gets mid-season) I don't get this as a football move. But what the fuck do I know.

That said, I don't think he's looked great since Week 1. I assumed it was due to injury.
Yeah if Gordon was even what he was last year it would be a big loss. But with Sanu here and Meyers emerging, I think they’ll be fine.
 

shawnrbu

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They must like what they see in practice with Harry. Meyers played better the last 2 games than Gordon did after Week 1.

Edelman
Dorsett
Sanu
Harry
Meyers

Gordon was about to be 6th on the depth chart starting in Week 9. Why they did this move in Week 8 instead of Week 9 is the unknown.
 

DJnVa

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He participated in the walk-through today. Just a weird situation.
 

dcmissle

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Seels

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Gordon hasn't really been great at any point this year. He has 287 yards and 1 TD in 6 games. He's 49th in DVOA.

I'm not sure this is that big a loss.
 

Super Nomario

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They must like what they see in practice with Harry. Meyers played better the last 2 games than Gordon did after Week 1.

Edelman
Dorsett
Sanu
Harry
Meyers

Gordon was about to be 6th on the depth chart starting in Week 9. Why they did this move in Week 8 instead of Week 9 is the unknown.
I think this is about right. They weren't going to be able to dress 6 true WR (plus another two WRishes in Gunner and Slater), and it was going to be tough fit 6 pure WR / 8 total on the 53-man. Dorsett and Gordon were the only guys not under contract for 2020, and between not being healthy and his struggles with addiction, it was tough to count on Gordon the rest of the way.

If we assume that some WR had to go once Harry is back (and it's tough to find a free roster spot elsewhere on the roster), what are the other options? Obviously Edelman, Sanu, and Harry aren't going anywhere. Dorsett has been solid and brings deep speed no one else does. Meyers has really come on. I'm kind of bummed Gordon is gone but I think it's a good sign for the young guys.
 

lexrageorge

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He participated in the walk-through today. Just a weird situation.
He was on the field for the initial walk through, but was officially listed as DNP.

It did appear he got banged up a bit against the Bills, and then again the following week against the Jets. So I'm starting to come around on this from a pure football perspective, as it may be unlikely he's fully healthy this season. It does seem likely he'll be claimed by one of the myriad 4-5/5-4 teams once he's released.
 

InstaFace

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I'm sure Gordon would return punts too, if it meant keeping his job - we just assumed Gunner was doing it because he was the most expendable man on the roster and we wanted to avoid injuries to those higher on the totem pole... like Josh Gordon.

Edit: there I go again, trying to argue with Ben Trollin.
 

Super Nomario

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I'm sure Gordon would return punts too, if it meant keeping his job - we just assumed Gunner was doing it because he was the most expendable man on the roster and we wanted to avoid injuries to those higher on the totem pole... like Josh Gordon.

Edit: there I go again, trying to argue with Ben Trollin.
I didn't assume that. It's a pretty different athletic skill set and they value guys who can do it pretty highly.
 

mauidano

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Did he have a relapse or something we just don't know about? None of this makes sense.
Sadly, this is the first thing many have thought about as well. Is there more to the story than what is being said? If he had a relapse it would be full of consequences for all. Just a sad story all the way around. Regardless, he is going to run out of opportunities pretty soon. Times waits for no one.
 

DebSox

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Football 53 man roster question: If JG is “healthy” in 3 weeks to return to football duties AND there is roster space, do the Patriots have to waive him and release him?
 

E5 Yaz

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If anything, I suspect Gordon got beat out on relative value by Jakobi Meyers
 

lexrageorge

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Speculating about a relapse seems unfair given that by all accounts Gordon has been working really hard to avoid one.

Also, if he had a relapse, he would have been suspended indefinitely, not placed on IR with plans to release him.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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You need to go into every game with at least 2 guys who can catch punts and preferably 2.5. Chung is our break in case of emergency .5, and he's been nicked up this year. Edelman is 2, and they are clearly not wanting him to do it if he doesn't have to.

So, unless there's someone on the team with a hidden skill set (maybe I'm forgetting someone), Olszewski has a good gig going if he keeps it up. Because cutting him means you need to have Edelman do it and move someone into the backup role that you can have faith in, in a windy or rainy game in November. I'm sure Bolden and Slater would give it a go if they had to but profootball reference says they've only returned kicks (and both less than 10 total).
 

djbayko

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If he's been playing with bone bruises maybe his prognosis is that he can get back to healthy enough but not 100% and football-wise the Pats are fine with moving on from that level of JG because he really wasn't playing all that great. His agent is feeding Yates their side of the story to get Josh another payday. If JG could get back to 100% health I don't think they'd be cutting him.
Well, if he's been playing with bone bruise(s), that would explain why he didn't quite look right after Week 1.

There's just so much potential there, that it's frustrating to see this as a fan (with absolutely zero insight into what is actually going on behind the scenes, medically and in any other relevant areas). In Bill we trust, I guess.
 

Twalk

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Really a huge challenge for his recovery. I've been in residential treatment since June 15th. Transferred to sober living on Monday. One of the reasons for the extra support in sober living is for rotator cuff surgery next week. I know that a huge part of my recovery is getting exercise and getting back to work. Feeling like all that hard work i'm putting in is paying off. Going to be a huge challenge not being able to do both early in my recovery. Putting myself in Gordon's shoes, this would feel like getting notified i'm being let go on top of not being able to do things because of the injury. I'm guessing he has they type of personality that has a difficult time with anything he perceives as failure. And then there is the whole issue of pain meds/alcohol and the desire to use to deal with pain. Really hoping the resources, support and tools he has obtained and learned continue to pay off for him. Love that my favorite team has been a part of his story and really hoping that this isn't the end of Gordon's time with the Patriots.
 

DJnVa

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Really a huge challenge for his recovery. I've been in residential treatment since June 15th. Transferred to sober living on Monday. One of the reasons for the extra support in sober living is for rotator cuff surgery next week. I know that a huge part of my recovery is getting exercise and getting back to work. Feeling like all that hard work i'm putting in is paying off. Going to be a huge challenge not being able to do both early in my recovery. Putting myself in Gordon's shoes, this would feel like getting notified i'm being let go on top of not being able to do things because of the injury. I'm guessing he has they type of personality that has a difficult time with anything he perceives as failure. And then there is the whole issue of pain meds/alcohol and the desire use to deal with his injuries. Really hoping the resources, support and tools he has obtained and learned continue to pay off for him. Love that my favorite team has been a part of his story and really hoping that this isn't the end of Gordon's time with the Patriots.
Good luck.
 

SMU_Sox

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Speculating about a relapse seems unfair given that by all accounts Gordon has been working really hard to avoid one.

Also, if he had a relapse, he would have been suspended indefinitely, not placed on IR with plans to release him.
Agreed and well said.

This sucks. I wouldn’t rule out him coming back to the team but someone will likely outbid them for his services next year.

With Jules, Sanu, Harry, Meyers, and Gunner though that’s a good positional group for the next two years. Hopefully Harry can take over the simpler outside route concepts and let Sanu be a big slot with Jules as a flanker. Will be curious to see how they use Sanu.

Best wishes to him. Will miss not cheering him on.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Football 53 man roster question: If JG is “healthy” in 3 weeks to return to football duties AND there is roster space, do the Patriots have to waive him and release him?
I don't believe there's any obligation to release even if he's healthy. I assume players go on IR all the time even though they might get healthy before the end of the season.

But if you're the Patriots why would you do this? You'd take the unnecessary cap hit just to block a healthy player from playing?

Technically, Gordon would be eligible to return after week 16 if he stayed on the IR but given that they are highly likely to use their last IR return spot very soon, there is no way he could play for the Patriots again this year.
 

DJnVa

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This is all BB playing 4D chess.

JG likely too banged up to help a team like NE with title aspirations so they cut him, he plays somewhere else for 6 weeks or so and comes back in off-season.