Josh Gordon has had a slow and steady start to his New England Patriots career. After being targeted just six times combined in his first two games, he had a team-high nine in their win against the Chiefs, catching five balls for 42 yards. That’s all just part of the plan for Gordon, according to Bill Belichick.
“I think each week his role has increased in practice and as far as the number of different things that he feels comfortable and we comfortable with him doing,” Belichick said per Josh Alper of Pro Football Focus. “I think it’ll continue to go that way. That may not necessarily correlate exactly to number of snaps. I mean we don’t sit there and count snaps during the game. I would just say that his role is expanding weekly and we’ll just see how it all plays out.”
Gordon’s introduction to the Patriots has coincided with Julian Edelman’s return to the lineup after his four-game suspension. He had also been recovering from the hamstring injury which essentially ended his time with the Browns. Those obviously contributed to Gordon not being as big a part of the Patriots offense as some expected.
By all accounts, Gordon has done well to get up to speed with the Patriots’ system following his arrival from Cleveland. And he's already struck up a nice connection with Tom Brady. So while it’s taken time to get him completely acclimated, the Chiefs game shows he’s finally ready to become a more prominent part of the offense.
Despite the presence of Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, and James White, Gordon provides something unique to the Patriots’ passing attack with his game-breaking speed. If he can be that sort of weapon for Brady like Randy Moss was back in the day, he could lift the Patriots’ already potent offense to an even higher level.
Follow Us
Subscribe