24 October, 2019
At
present, Gordon is nursing a bum knee and Harry is back practicing after
spending the first part of the season on the injured/reserved list with a bad
hammy. Harry can be activated to the roster in early November, and while there
is no established time table for Gordon's return, the smart money has him returning
to the field this coming Sunday to face his former team, the Cleveland Browns.
Foxborough Free
Press, 22 October, 2019
New England Patriots' first round draft pick
N'Keal Harry will most likely be activated in early November, but Josh Gordon
will not be returning to face his former team this Sunday.
Up until Wednesday afternoon, Gordon had been
spotted participating in team drills in preparation for the Cleveland Browns,
but a couple of hours later, the Patriots placed the mercurial receiver on
their injured/reserved list, ending his season and, most likely, his career in
Foxborough - and once again we learn that the smart money isn't always the best
bet on the board.
The state of the New England Patriots' receiving
corps this season has been subject to much conjecture among the working press,
most feeling that defacto general manager Bill Belichick needed to address what
was viewed as a group lacking the ability to spread the field vertically...
...which wasn't really true as Phillip Dorsett
possesses world-class speed and fly paper for hands, and Gordon, while not
particularly fast, was a natural playmaker who won at the top of the route and
battled valiantly for 50/50 balls down the seam and on deep back-shoulder
throws, and was generally successful at both.
Then on Monday, word broke that Belichick had
traded a 2020 second-round draft pick to the Atlanta Falcons for big possession
receiver Mohamed Sanu, who is fearless on crossing routes and knows how to find
the line to gain, joining Super Bowl MVP Julian Edelman and an up-and-coming
Jakobi Meyers to make up a suddenly potent entity that could play it anyway you
wanted.
Things were looking up but he Boston media were
not satisfied, calling Sanu and "Poor man's Josh Gordon" - and that,
now obvious and apparent, seems to be the whole point.
Since being activated from suspension late in the
preseason, Gordon seemed to be laboring in the pattern and after the catch, not
displaying the same sharp moves to gain separation from the defensive backs,
and easily being caught from behind once he made the catch. Some attributed
this to lack of interest and effort, but still the speculation was that he was
out of shape and/or disinterested as he frequently signaled to the sideline to
be pulled from the game to catch a blow.
To be fair, he made some tough catches and showed
a lot of toughness by returning to action after suffering hand and leg
injuries, but the combination of lack of burst in the pattern and injury made
Gordon appear ordinary and not the explosive playmaker that caused Belichick to
reserve their rights to him through the aforementioned indefinite suspension.
The final straw came when Gordon was injured
trying to stop New York Giants linebacker Markus Golden from scoring after
scooping up a Tom Brady fumble, as replays showed that he seemed hesitant to
engage Golden at the goal line and was subsequently caught in the scrum, was
bent backwards and trapping his left leg awkwardly beneath him as he fell to
the turf.
After being examined by the training staff on the
field, he left under his own power and Patriots' fans breathed a collective
sigh of relief, thinking that Gordon had escaped serious injury.
That was two weeks ago and, as it always is with the
secretive Patriots, there had been no word on Gordon's status, other than he
was limited with a lower body injury. Fans were hopeful of Gordon's return, as
he hadn't been placed on the I/R and, as mentioned, was seen on the practice
field. But now it is apparent that we should have seen this coming.
So now with the trade deadline looming on Tuesday,
the question is, does Belichick dip into the trade market to obtain another
receiver?
Most likely, that answer would be “no”, especially
with Harry set to be activated during the Patriots' bye week – but that comes
with a caveat. Harry is a rookie who was on the field for a handful of plays in
the preseason and has never experienced playing in a regular season game. Harry
isn't exactly considered a deep threat, but is a perimeter threat, his 6' 4”,
215 pound frame and mad hops perfect for plucking balls out of the air on those
50/50 and back-shoulder balls.
Reports from NFL insiders indicate that Gordon
will be released from the I/R once deemed healthy, and for his part, Gordon
expressed shock and disappointment and tweeted out that he hopes to play for
another team this season.
That may be, as there are many teams out there in
need of an experienced playmaker in the pattern, even an out of shape and
injured one – but his time in New England is over.
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