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The New England Patriots have been put in a bit of a tough spot with star wide receiver Josh Gordon deciding to take an indefinite leave of absence from the team to address a personal matter involving his sobriety.
This pushed the Patriots in a position of having to adjust on the fly without one of their primary offensive weapons in the passing game for likely the rest of the season. With that in mind, star quarterback Tom Brady addressed the matter on Friday stating that these type of losses on the field can happen at any given moment, according to Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk.
Article Continues Below“The reality is, it could happen like the first play of the game too, you know? Someone might sprain an ankle and next thing you know, guys are adjusting,” Brady said. “That’s just part of the nature of playing a long time, is you realize that things happen very quickly and they change very quickly. We lost Jeremy Hill the first game of the year. You think you’ve got all this running back depth, next thing you know, guys get hurt. It’s two weeks in, you’re like, “Holy cow, what happened?” And that’s just part of playing and being mentally tough.”
There isn't anything diminishing of how serious the matter is that Gordon is dealing with off the field. This is something that is much larger and more important for him to get straightened out first before he can even give thought toward trying to resume his football career.
That said, Gordon had played a huge part in the Patriots offense as their primary offensive weapon in the passing game as their top receiving threat. In 10 games played, he tallied 10 receptions on 68 targets for 720 receiving yards and three touchdowns. This included him notching a pair of 100 receiving yard performances along with seven games posting 50 or more receiving yards.
His absence will push the Patriots to rely more heavily upon wide receiver Julian Edelman and Chris Hogan along with tight end Rob Gronkowski and running back James White.
