The end of wide receiver Josh Gordon’s 10-game suspension is fast approaching and the Browns are starting to think about how they might best integrate Gordon into their offense as they try to make a playoff push in the final weeks of the season.
General Manager Ray Farmer didn’t outline too much about those plans on Tuesday, saying that the team will make determinations about Gordon’s physical and mental readiness when the time comes but that no amount of readiness would make the team rock the boat too much offensively.
“What’s a big opportunity?’' Farmer said, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Do you disrupt what you do offensively just to make sure that you throw the ball to Josh Gordon? I don’t know if that’s really the right way to operate. Is he a phenomenal talent? Sure I’d tell you that he is a talented young man and he can do a lot of good things. But do you kind of disrupt what you are to just make sure that one person gets the ball? I think that teams win. Talent doesn’t. It’s really about building a team and people have to find a way to fit into the team and I think that’s what we’re looking for here is a championship level team.”
Farmer added that he wasn’t trying to suggest that Gordon doesn’t fit into the team, just that he’ll need to fit into the team’s system in order to see playing time. Given how well Gordon has played when he’s been on the field and the Browns’ underwhelming receiving corps, that would seem to be a bigger issue in terms of off the field activities because the team wouldn’t be disrupting much by throwing the ball to Gordon instead of Miles Austin or Taylor Gabriel.