Cowboys Were Not Interested In Gordon
- Robinson also debunks the notion the Cowboys were pursuing Gordon. Both Robinson and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Clarence Hill (Twitter link) report the Cowboys had “no interest” in the 27-year-old receiver. Although Dallas is thinner at wide receiver (in terms of reliable producers) than just about any franchise, the team was not exploring a Gordon deal — contrary to a previous report that indicated it was. Perhaps brief conversations involved Gordon, per Clarence Hill of The Athletic (on Twitter), but the front office didn’t approach Jason Garrett about that prospect.
NFL Workout Updates: 9/17/18
Today’s workout updates, with all links going to NFL reporter Howard Balzer’s of Twitter account unless otherwise noted:
Baltimore Ravens
- G Jonathan Cooper, G Dillon Day, G Jamil Douglas, C T.J. Johnson, G Austin Pasztor, G Ian Silberman, T Darrell Williams. (Twitter link via ESPN’s Jamison Hensley)
Cincinnati Bengals
- S Quin Blanding, DT Joshua Frazier, S Mike Mitchell, DT Elijah Qualls, DE Charles Tapper (Twitter links via Balzer and Sirius XM’s Adam Caplan)
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
- S Andrew Adams, CB David Amerson, CB Alex Carter, CB Michael Hunter, CB Jeremy Lane (via the Houston Chronicle’s Aaron Wilson, on Twitter)
Indianapolis Colts
- CB Johnathan Alston, CB De’Vante Bausby, S Kurtis Drummond, Jackson Porter, CB Josh Shaw (Visit, link)
Jacksonville Jaguars
- P Joseph Davidson (link)
New York Jets
- CB De’Vante Bausby, DT Michael Bennett, WR Jace Billingsley, T Gerhard de Beer, LB Azeem Victor, Adolphus Washington (link)
Philadelphia Eagles
- G Kofi Amichia, G Spencer Drango, G Kaleb Johnson, T Rees Odhiambo (link)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- TE Nick O’Leary (link)
Tennessee Titans
- WR Nick Williams (link)
Washington Redskins
- TE Evan Baylis, TE Pharaoh Brown, TE Vince Mayle, WR Tre McBride, QB Josh Woodrum (link)
Patriots To Acquire Josh Gordon
It’s a done deal. Josh Gordon is headed to the Patriots, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The Pats will send a fifth-round pick to the Browns for the former All-Pro.
Gordon is expected to play for the Patriots on Sunday night against the Lions, Schefter reports (via Twitter). The Patriots will receive a 2019 seventh-round pick from the Browns if Gordon is unable to play 10 games with New England this season, per Schefter (on Twitter).
The Patriots will waive former Gordon Browns teammate Corey Coleman to make room, Field Yates of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter).
This trade was initially supposed to be for a sixth-round pick, but with New England not having a 2019 sixth, Schefter adds Cleveland will receive a fifth for Gordon. The Browns wanted to send Gordon to the NFC, and Schefter tweets they discussed the seventh-year wideout with the Cowboys, Redskins and 49ers before the Patriots stepped up. The Gordon market was vast but not flush with strong offers, with Albert Breer of SI.com tweeting a sixth-rounder was set to get this deal done before the Pats agreed to part with a fifth.
The 27-year-old wide receiver recently underwent a hamstring MRI, and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that the scan came out fine. That would put him on track to play for his new team on Sunday night.
This ends a six-plus-year saga for Gordon in Cleveland. He’s leaving a team that’s won one game since the start of the 2016 season and heading to this era’s most successful franchise. Gordon could be controlled on his 2012 rookie contract through the 2019 season. He’s set to be a restricted free agent after 2018.
“John (Dorsey) got the best he could,” Hue Jackson said Monday (via Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com).
Some in the Browns’ organization believe Gordon slipped in his recovery program, per Cabot, who adds it wasn’t Gordon’s hamstring issue but his rampant off-field issues that finally prompted the Browns to cut the cord. They first announced they were planning to cut Gordon. That understandably generated a trade market for the mercurial talent, and Dorsey will add draft capital as a result. Although if Gordon proves healthy and available for the Pats, he’ll be worth more than a fifth-round pick.
But the Patriots are comfortable enough to make a deal. They are getting a player who delivered one of the greatest receiving seasons in NFL history, albeit way back in 2013, and one of the league’s most notorious suspension risks. Gordon’s missed all but 11 games since the start of the 2014 season.
Gordon will add not only to the extensive Browns-Pats pipeline that’s formed — joining Jamie Collins, Barkevious Mingo, Jason McCourty and Danny Shelton among notable players these franchises have exchanged recently — but represent another Bill Belichick reclamation project. He’ll join Corey Dillon, Randy Moss, Chad Johnson and Albert Haynesworth in that club and represent more risk than each, given his history.
The Patriots, however, could well be facing a closing championship window — with Tom Brady now 41 — and have made 28 wide receiver transactions since the 2018 league year began. They’ve attempted for months to find weapons for Brady; they’ve now landed the most interesting possible piece.
New England is without Julian Edelman until after Week 4 and have been discussing receivers with other teams leading up to their Gordon deal. The former second-round supplemental pick joins a receiving corps headed by Chris Hogan and Phillip Dorsett.
Belichick will gamble the newest Patriot can stay on the field. Gordon missed all of the 2015 and ’16 seasons due to substance-abuse trouble, incurred a 10-game 2014 ban and did not suit up for the Browns until December 2017 post-reinstatement. Gordon also missed Browns training camp, reportedly checking himself into a rehab facility in fear of another substance-abuse relapse. He also admitted he’d played under the influence since high school, so his future with another organization will be interesting to follow.
Cowboys Working Out QB Landry Jones
The Cowboys could be looking for an upgrade behind Dak Prescott. Former Steelers backup Landry Jones is working out in Dallas on Monday, Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets.
Jones, 29, has not participated in a known workout since being cut by the Steelers after the preseason. He backed up Ben Roethlisberger for the past three seasons, playing in Pittsburgh for five total, but couldn’t beat out Joshua Dobbs for the veteran-reserve spot in Pittsburgh alongside Mason Rudolph.
A 2017 UDFA success story, Cooper Rush is in his second season backing up Prescott. The Cowboys also have rookie fifth-rounder Mike White on their roster. Rush has thrown three NFL passes, White zero, illustrating how thin Dallas is at this spot.
Roethlisberger’s issues with short-term injuries, and the Steelers’ preference to rest him the past two Week 17s, forced Jones to make five starts. Completing 63 percent of his passes, Jones went 3-2 and has thrown for 1,310 yards, eight touchdown passes and seven interceptions.
Browns Expected To Trade Josh Gordon Today
The Browns are expected to trade wide receiver Josh Gordon today, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter links), who adds Cleveland could conceivably receive a conditional pick that could ultimately become a mid-round selection.
Eight-to-ten clubs have contacted the Browns regarding Gordon’s availability, per Josina Anderson of ESPN.com (Twitter link), and some teams are reportedly “adamant” that their interest in Gordon be made public. 49ers general manager John Lynch admits he’s reached out to Cleveland about Gordon, as Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area writes, while the Jets have some interest but are unlikely to acquire Gordon, reports Rich Cimini of ESPN.com. The Cowboys, meanwhile, are not in the running for Gordon, tweets Brandon George of the Dallas Morning News.
Gordon, of course, has dealt with numerous off-field issues during his career, but it doesn’t appear as though he’s suffered any sort of relapse to precipitate the Browns moving on from him. Instead, Cleveland has developed “trust issues” with its 27-year-old pass-catcher, who reportedly injured his hamstring during a recent photo shoot. Indeed, part of rival clubs’ analysis on Gordon will include how long it will take him to recover from said injury.
Any team that acquires Gordon will take on the remainder of his $790K base salary for the 2018 season. Gordon, whose contract has tolled multiple times during his career, will become a restricted free agent at the end of the year.
Latest On Josh Gordon
The day after the Browns’ shocking announcement that they would be releasing former All-Pro receiver Josh Gordon, more news on the troubled wideout is continuing to pour in. After initially stating Gordon would be cut, Cleveland quickly reversed course and made it clear they were going to look to trade Gordon and get something back in return.
The Browns apparently would prefer to trade him out of conference, and Gordon himself has his eye on two NFC teams. Gordon would prefer to be traded to either the 49ers or Cowboys a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN. Both teams have issues in their receiving corps and would make sense as possible destinations.
49ers GM John Lynch confirmed to reporters that the team did call the Browns about Gordon, saying the “team is doing its due diligence” according to Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports (Twitter link). Gordon grew up in Texas and played his high school and college ball there, so it makes sense why he’d want to go to Dallas. Kyle Shanahan was briefly his offensive coordinator in Cleveland, which might explain his attraction to San Francisco.
Another issue surrounding Gordon is his health. It was reported yesterday that he injured his hamstring during a promotional shoot and not at practice, and that the injury was one of the reasons the Browns were cutting ties with him. “Gordon is traveling tonight to see a specialist tomorrow to learn the severity of his hamstring injury” a source told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link). The severity of the injury could be a determining factor in what sort of compensation the Browns get in a trade.
Several Teams Have Inquired On Josh Gordon
Shortly after the Browns announced their plan to release Josh Gordon yesterday evening, we heard that rival clubs were already calling Cleveland to inquire about trading for the troubled wideout before he hits the open market. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk lends further credence to those reports, writing that a few teams have indeed discussed a trade with the Browns.
It is not surprising that teams would be interested in the tremendously-talented Gordon from a pure football perspective, but it would be surprising if a club surrendered draft capital to acquire him if there were truth to the speculation that Gordon had suffered a relapse in his battle with substance abuse. However, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (via Twitter) that the Browns’ decision to part ways with Gordon is not drug-related, though he did injure his hamstring during a team photo shoot. Given Gordon’s history, of course, it is fair to be skeptical of the circumstances surrounding his impending departure, and one league executive said, “if [the Browns] are letting him go, something is up” (Twitter link via ESPN’s Josina Anderson).
But assuming that Gordon has not run afoul of the league’s substance abuse policy, we could see the Browns strike a deal to send him elsewhere, though there are no concrete reports as to which teams have expressed interest. Florio speculates that the 49ers, Patriots, Seahawks, and Cowboys could be in the running, but Calvin Watkins of The Athletic tweets that he does not expect Dallas to make a play for Gordon.
Matt Miller of Bleacher Report, citing the 49ers’ previous interest in Gordon, says he would not be surprised if San Francisco were one of the clubs willing to trade for him, though he suggests that any trade would include only conditional compensation (Twitter link). Any team that does trade for him would take on the balance of Gordon’s $790K contract this year — a bargain if he can stay on the field — and would have the right to keep him under club control with a a restricted free agency tender in 2019.
Rapoport tweets that Gordon himself is most interested in the Cowboys and 49ers, and Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports that the Browns intend to trade Gordon to an NFC club (Twitter link).
Cowboys Not Likely To Be In On Josh Gordon
- One team that was quickly brought up in connection to Gordon was the Cowboys. But despite their dire need for a number one receiver, don’t expect Dallas to be a player for Gordon writes Calvin Watkins of The Athletic (Twitter link,) who says “I just don’t see the Cowboys investing in” the troubled young wideout.
Cowboys Increased Scott Linehan's Role
- Cowboys offensive coordinator Scott Linehan saw increased latitude this offseason in the team’s effort to restructure its offense, with Brandon George of the Dallas Morning News writing the fourth-year Dallas OC was involved in the decisions to release Dez Bryant and move on from four offensive assistants. Linehan signed an extension in 2017 that calls for him to be paid approximately $2MM per season, George notes. This makes the Cowboys’ OC one of the NFL’s highest-paid assistants. George adds Linehan could well be on the chopping block if Dallas’ offense nosedives. The Panthers did not see much from Linehan’s unit in Week 1.
Extra Points: Giants, Manning, Dolphins, Sitton, Seahawks, Kendricks, Cowboys, Bryant
One of the most talked about storylines of the 2018 NFL offseason was what the Giants would do with the second overall pick. Many thought they would take a quarterback to succeed Eli Manning in New York, but the team opted for running back Saquon Barkley instead. Tyler Dunne of Bleacher Report is out with a new feature on Manning and the Giants where he writes about Manning’s determination to prove the Giants didn’t make a mistake.
While he writes “the decision to stick with Manning could go down as one of the worst blunders in NFL history” due to the high-level quarterbacks, like Sam Darnold, available at number two in this year’s draft, Manning still believes he’s got a lot left in the tank. Manning said he’s entirely focused on proving to the Giants that “they did make the right decision” and that he has one last title run left in him. The full piece is full of juicy tidbits and well worth a read to get a look inside the 2018 Giants and the last few tumultuous years for one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in recent memory.
Here’s more from around the league:
- The Dolphins lost starting guard Josh Sitton for the season earlier this week, but despite the huge blow to their offensive line, the team won’t be looking for outside help to replace him according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link). The Dolphins also expect Sitton to be back with the team in 2019, Jackson notes.
- The Seahawks signed legally troubled linebacker Mychal Kendricks in part because they were upset with the play of rookie Shaquem Griffin according to Bob Condotta of The Athletic. Condotta notes that coach Pete Carroll specifically called out Griffin following the team’s loss to the Broncos, and that the front office immediately began looking for linebacking help.
- Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and free agent receiver Dez Bryant were recently spotted at a concert together, sparking rumors of a potential reunion between the two sides. Stephen Jones, the team’s Executive Vice President, threw cold water on the speculation, saying “we feel really good about our receiving corps moving forward” and indicating they wouldn’t be looking for outside help according to Jon Machota of Dallas News. While he mostly denied it, it’s worth noting he didn’t 100% rule out the team bringing Dez back in.