Looks like Josh Gordon is probably done for the season. There have been multiple reports that he’s facing a season-long suspension, and now he’s been arrested and charged with drunk driving over the weekend in North Carolina.
There’s supposedly some appeal that will be heard or decided on late this month, but it doesn’t look good. At the very best, maybe Gordon sneaks away with an eight-game suspension. More realistically, he’s done for the 2014 season.
That’s too bad. A great talent – maybe one of the top 5 wide receivers in the league – and I was looking forward to seeing what the new coaching staff would do with him.
Gordon blossomed last year under Norv Turner, leading the league in receiving yards, even after missing the first two games with a separate league suspension.
While Gordon is a great deep threat, though, he hasn’t yet emerged as a franchise-type guy on the shorter routes. Inside the 10, for example, he was about the least effective pass catcher in the league. They threw him 11 balls in that part of the field last year, and he caught only one of them.
For fantasy purposes, I’m disappointed in the Gordon suspension because my hunch is he would have been one of the guys that I was counting on being overvalued by most other fantasy analysts. I think the Browns are going to pass a lot less this year, and Gordon’s numbers were going to decline a whole bunch anyway.
Here are the end zone area receiving stats, with targets, completions and touchdowns (which include both TDs and 2-point conversions).
| RECEIVING INSIDE THE 10 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Att | Com | TD | Pct |
| 1. | Jerricho Cotchery | 10 | 6 | 6 | 60% |
| 2. | Brandon Marshall | 16 | 10 | 9 | 56% |
| 3. | Marlon Brown | 11 | 8 | 6 | 55% |
| 4. | Julian Edelman | 11 | 8 | 6 | 55% |
| 5. | Wes Welker | 15 | 10 | 8 | 53% |
| 6. | Dez Bryant | 18 | 11 | 9 | 50% |
| 7. | Martellus Bennett | 8 | 4 | 4 | 50% |
| 8. | Marvin Jones | 8 | 7 | 4 | 50% |
| 9. | Riley Cooper | 8 | 5 | 4 | 50% |
| 10. | Anquan Boldin | 8 | 5 | 4 | 50% |
| 11. | Jared Cook | 8 | 4 | 4 | 50% |
| 12. | Jimmy Graham | 17 | 10 | 8 | 47% |
| 13. | Joseph Fauria | 13 | 6 | 6 | 46% |
| 14. | Jordan Cameron | 11 | 6 | 5 | 45% |
| 15. | Jason Witten | 11 | 6 | 5 | 45% |
| 16. | Emmanuel Sanders | 11 | 7 | 5 | 45% |
| 17. | Tony Gonzalez | 9 | 5 | 4 | 44% |
| 18. | Charles Clay | 9 | 7 | 4 | 44% |
| 19. | Vernon Davis | 12 | 6 | 5 | 42% |
| 20. | Keenan Allen | 10 | 4 | 4 | 40% |
| 21. | Demaryius Thomas | 11 | 6 | 4 | 36% |
| 22. | Calvin Johnson | 11 | 5 | 4 | 36% |
| 23. | Pierre Garcon | 11 | 5 | 4 | 36% |
| 24. | Eric Decker | 14 | 7 | 5 | 36% |
| 25. | Greg Olsen | 9 | 4 | 3 | 33% |
| 26. | Jamaal Charles | 9 | 4 | 3 | 33% |
| 27. | Denarius Moore | 9 | 3 | 3 | 33% |
| 28. | Antonio Gates | 9 | 4 | 3 | 33% |
| 29. | Delanie Walker | 9 | 4 | 3 | 33% |
| 30. | Larry Fitzgerald | 13 | 7 | 4 | 31% |
| 31. | Andre Johnson | 11 | 6 | 3 | 27% |
| 32. | Alshon Jeffery | 12 | 4 | 3 | 25% |
| 33. | A.J. Green | 12 | 5 | 3 | 25% |
| 34. | Danny Woodhead | 12 | 10 | 3 | 25% |
| 35. | Greg Little | 8 | 2 | 2 | 25% |
| 36. | Jarrett Boykin | 8 | 2 | 2 | 25% |
| 37. | James Jones | 9 | 4 | 2 | 22% |
| 38. | Jordy Nelson | 11 | 5 | 2 | 18% |
| 39. | Cecil Shorts III | 11 | 3 | 2 | 18% |
| 40. | Michael Floyd | 8 | 2 | 1 | 13% |
| 41. | Darrius Heyward-Bey | 9 | 2 | 1 | 11% |
| 42. | Josh Gordon | 11 | 1 | 1 | 9% |
—Ian Allan