Why the Browns Made the Right Decision

From the outside looking in, my gut reaction to finding out Cleveland had intentions of getting rid of Josh Gordon was that they had just threw away their season and this was the Browns being the same old incompetent organization we’ve always known them to be. What I hadn’t given enough credence to was the fact that the Cleveland Browns absolutely have earned the benefit of the doubt as it pertains handling Josh Gordon and they were finally in a position where they could not give Gordon another second chance.

We know about Josh Gordon and all of his suspensions but you really don’t grasp how long of a time-span they ran until you see them all laid out:

There was the indefinite suspension for substance abuse at Baylor, the 2 game suspension for substance abuse his second year in Cleveland, the 10 game suspension for substance abuse his third year in Cleveland followed by a 1 game suspension at the end of his third season for missing the walkthrough, and finally the season-long suspension his fourth year that ran through week 12 of his sixth year… and the Browns were there for all of it, ready to welcome him back with open arms the minute he got back right.

Were they doing this as a favor to Josh Gordon? No. Would Josh Gordon have stuck around half as long if he wasn’t the uber-talented athlete that he is? No. But at the same time there were so many points along the way where it would have been completely understandable for the Browns to part ways with Josh Gordon and they stuck with that man for seven years with only two full seasons of football to show for it. If there were a time to cut ties, the Cleveland Browns would know when that time was better than anyone else.

Not only have the Browns historically shown a track record of standing by Josh Gordon, but this past offseason they hired a general manager in John Dorsey who has a track record of taking chances on players who present off-the-field concerns.

John Dorsey took Travis Kelce in the third round of the 2013 draft after Kelce was suspended his entire sophomore year at the University of Cincinnati for failing a drug test. John Dorsey drafted Marcus Peters after Peters also failed a drug test as a redshirt freshman and was later kicked off his team in his junior year at Washington. And most notably, John Dorsey was one of the few general managers that still had Tyreek Hill on his draft board after Hill beat and strangled his pregnant girlfriend.

Dorsey has personally reaped the benefits from taking chances on guys with off-the-field issues, drafting three All-Pro players who were suspended or kicked off their teams in college. So Dorsey’s track record as a GM combined with the patience the Browns organization has shown with Gordon over the past seven years, puts us in a rare situation where the Cleveland Browns have absolutely earned our the benefit of the doubt.

Gordon was the best football player on that team and a lot of the young talent in that locker room were looking up to Gordon as an example of how to develop into a productive player in the league. So If the Cleveland Browns believed that Josh Gordon’s conduct was detrimental to their team, they could not afford to make yet another exception for him in the midst of building a culture of accountability.

Gordon was given special treatment that he earned with his talent, but the Browns had reached a point where extending that special treatment would’ve made them look like pushovers. They were finally at a place where keeping Gordon could’ve presented them with more problems than letting him go.

Lastly, parting with Gordon doesn’t exactly leave the Browns devoid of offensive weapons. The Browns have several promising receiving threats who are the age of 25 or younger in Jarvis Landry, David Njoku, Duke Johnson, Rashard Higgins and Antonio Callaway.

They are also projected to have almost $80 million in cap space in 2019. With the young assets and the capital they have at their disposal, wiping their hands clean of Josh Gordon isn’t nearly as detrimental to their offense as it may seem on its face.