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It’s not that Josh Gordon is struggling. He’s just not excelling quite the way he expected to.

The Browns wide receiver is putting up numbers close to his All-Pro pace of last year, but he has high expectations.

“I know in my mind I’m not where I want to be because I’d like for it to be just second nature and for me to not have to think about it,” Gordon said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. [Before] I’d hear half the play in the huddle and still know what to do. But it’s not like that right now so I have to compensate and study a little more than everybody else. I’m playing catch-up. I’ve got a long way to go to be where I want to be.”

Gordon’s 10-game suspension also left him learning the offense all over again, and that creates another layer of mental hurdles for him.

“The terminology’s changed even since training camp,” he said. “It’s still the same concept, but just little tweaks to tight ends and protection makes the words change and sound like a totally different play to me, so I’m just trying to still realize it’s the same thing.”

He admitted to running the wrong routes which led to two Brian Hoyer interceptions last week, and Hoyer said one of the keys is to keep expectations in check.

“We definitely have to get better in sync,” the quarterback said. “We stay after practice and talk through things, and we’re trying to work through it. It’s tough when you’re not around for 10 weeks. You can’t put that all on Josh. It’s a tough situation. We’re definitely working to get it better, especially with Miles [Austin] not being able to play, Josh becomes an even bigger option. Like I said, not having 10 weeks and then all of a sudden you’re into NFL games, it’s hard to work on the fly.”

Neither Hoyer nor the Browns have much of a margin of error right now, so they need Gordon and his incredible talent to be on the same page as the rest of the offense.