Josh Gordon quickly has caught on with the Patriots. Having played 36 snaps in two games, making four catches for 82 yards and a touchdown, the receiver appears ready for a bigger role.
“It hasn’t been too tough,” Gordon said of picking up the Patriots’ playbook, via Doug Kyed of NESN. “I think that’s greatly due in part to the amount of help I receive from my teammates here, definitely Tom [Brady], all the receivers help bringing me along on a daily basis. The coaches, just giving me all these resources I need. And me taking advantage of it, going home and studying that daily.
“I think even a part of having a certain amount of experience in the league already and seeing so many different offenses and stuff, I think the language of it is somewhat familiar. It hasn’t been too tough.”
Gordon getting a locker next to Brady was by design. It has helped Gordon’s acclimation.
“Most of the day we wind up talking football, whether it be in the locker room here briefly or in most of the meeting rooms or time after practice,” Gordon said. “We carve out time, and we make it happen. We make sure if there’s something that might be a concern for him or me or he wants to know how I like to do something or how he wants to do something, I just ask him. He’s open about it, and it makes it easy for me to communicate with him. It makes it a real natural type of relationship.”
Gordon caught Brady’s 500th career touchdown pass last week, already earning him a special place in New England. Brady is starting to trust Gordon more by the day.
“Yeah, I think anytime you come in late to the season, I think there’s a big learning curve,” Brady said. “You’re just trying to get up to speed as fast as possible. I think fortunately, he’s got other guys at his position that he can really lean on, Chris [Hogan] and Julian [Edelman] in particular. Phillip [Dorsett] kind of learned late in the season last year. They’ve got a good group, really well coached group, and we’re just trying to work to get better every day.”
