It took 1,078 days – nearly three years – for Josh Gordon to be allowed back on an NFL field, but this past week, one of the league’s truly elite receivers was catching passes once again for the Cleveland Browns. When all was said and done, Gordon would put up a ho-hum 4-catch, 85-yard performance against the Los Angeles Chargers. The results aren’t anything amazing, but a deeper dive into the film suggests Gordon’s numbers Sunday are only scratching the surface.

The first thing that stuck out when reviewing Gordon’s outing was his utilization. He was on the field for 48 of a possible 63 snaps, lining up in the following alignments:

Allignment Snaps Wide Left 17 Slot Left 5 Slot Right 11 Wide Right 15

The biggest difference between that initial outing, and his career year in 2013, was the extensive work in the slot. A third of his snaps came from the slot against the Chargers compared to only 9.4 percent back in 2013. That’s an interesting development considering his skill set doesn’t fit the traditional slot profile.

On the other hand though, it could have simply been a way for Gordon to avoid LA's top corner, Casey Hayward. Gordon was followed left to right when he was split wide by Hayward, but he wasn’t tracking to the slot. On Gordon’s 33 pass routes, the closest defender lined up over Gordon on each broke down as follows:

Now with as much cover-3 and other zone coverages that the Chargers play, this doesn’t mean that the above defender was covering Gordon on each play, but it does show that he had his work cut out for him working across from PFF’s top-ranked cornerback this season for a majority of his routes.

Gordon was thrown at 13 times on the day (two of those targets came on plays negated by penalty) and only hauled in four of those targets. While that’s an ugly ratio, he shoulders little of that blame. Of his 11 targets that counted, three were uncatchable with separation, one was uncatchable in tight coverage, one was poorly placed with separation, one was broken up at the catch point, and one was a miscommunication with DeShone Kizer.

While quarterbacks are always going to miss open receivers, two of those misses were especially encouraging for Gordon, and the reason I believe he could be a problem for defenses sooner rather than later. The first came with 14:25 left in the second quarter.

Speed jumped off the tape. Crosses the 25 yard line here before Rashard Higgins and Corey Coleman…and he was running across the field pic.twitter.com/21zCRpoyfl — Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) December 8, 2017

On that play above, Gordon was lined up in the tight left slot. He runs a deep over route splitting the Chargers zone. The part that is so impressive about it is the fact that he crosses the 25-yard line at the exact same time as Corey Coleman and Rashard Higgins do – except those two were running in a straight line.

Kizer overthrew the pass, but that type of downfield separation would be seen a couple more times throughout the game. With 9:13 to go in the third, Gordon was lined up split right in the middle of a bunch formation.

Look how quickly he eats up a cushion here at top of the screen. Better placed throw and it's a big play pic.twitter.com/zOhUofKnh3 — Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) December 8, 2017

He pressed the cornerbacks outside shoulder before running the inside-nine route. The scary part is how quickly Gordon eats up cornerback Trevor Williams’ cushion. When Gordon crosses his own 40, Williams is five yards clear of Gordon on top of the route.

By the time they hit the Chargers 40, it’s Gordon crossing first.

He made up a five-yard cushion over the course of 20 yards and was a good four yards clear to the inside. Kizer hung the ball against Gordon’s leverage on the outside, letting Williams make a play on the ball, but it could very easily have been a big gain with a better throw.

The final play I’ll highlight may have come in what some would consider garbage time as the Browns were down nine with 2:08 left in the fourth quarter. The coverage though is no prevent. Hayward is in press man on Gordon who is split wide left and the Chargers are aggressive across the board.

Josh Gordon's stat line was nothing special Sunday, but he looked every bit the elite talent we saw in 2013 pic.twitter.com/LyUvr2xXu0 — Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) December 8, 2017

Hayward takes one false step outside on the release and then simply doesn’t have the athleticism to recover at any point in the route. By the time Gordon makes his break on the deep dig, Hayward is nowhere to be found and Gordon sheds the safeties tackle attempt for good measure.

These three plays showcase a rare skillset that there was debate as to whether or not we’d ever see again. There were some crispness issues, and he wasn’t always on the same page as Kizer, but those are to be expected from a player who’s seen the field as little as he has. The key takeaway is that the freakish athletic ability is still very much there, he just needs a quarterback that will take advantage of it.