Cleveland Browns Make Smart, Aggressive Move in Adding WR Josh Gordon

The Cleveland Browns continued their aggressive offseason by parting ways with a 2013 second-round draft pick to select Baylor receiver Josh Gordon in Round 2 of Thursday's Supplemental draft, something that has engendered reactions ranging from praise to incredulity to outright laughter.

But think of it this way: Gordon, had he not failed that drug test at Baylor, would likely still be there. And Gordon has talent—we've heard, all week, about the comparisons to A.J. Green, for example—potentially the kind of talent that would warrant his selection in the second round of next year's NFL draft. 

And for a team like Cleveland that desperately needs to add more talent to its receiving corps, picking up Gordon is an extremely savvy move. Gordon has tremendous upside despite not playing football in 2011 after switching schools to Utah and being forced to sit out by the NCAA.

This all sounds like a similar profile to Greg Little last season. Gordon, like Little, won't have the benefit of a full NFL offseason program and will instead be thrown into the fire that is training camp, likely with a bit of rust on his game.

But with development and real, valuable on-field playing time in his rookie season, Gordon has all the indications of even surpassing Little next year and becoming the Browns' true No. 1 receiver.

Adam Caplan of SiriusXM NFL Radio indicated that the Browns are the only team Gordon met with in the time leading up to the supplemental draft, and the fact that Cleveland, which held the No. 2 pick in every round, selected him in the second is a testament to the Browns' dedication this year to getting the player they want, no matter if it seems to outsiders like a reach.

It was smart for the Browns to be aggressive once again. Adding Gordon to the receiving corps isn't just a vanity move—it's to add a very real upgrade at a position that desperately needed it. If Brandon Weeden is to be a successful rookie quarterback, he'll need dynamic playmakers to throw to, and despite Gordon's downtime, he's exactly that.

At 6'3", 224 lbs. and boasting a 4.5-second 40 time (despite a quadriceps pull he suffered during that run), Gordon is nearly the prototype of an ideal No. 1 receiver. In 2010 at Baylor, he caught 42 passes for 714 yards and scored seven touchdowns. With Gordon now on board to complement Little, the Browns can finally have two field-stretching receivers on the field, something they sorely lacked in 2011.

That being said, there will be a learning curve for Gordon. He may suffer from the same issues (such as dropping passes) as Little did last season as he gets up to speed with the playbook. There are also the character problems; while they matter little on the field, one must hope they don't pop up again off it.

But there's far more upside to the addition of Gordon than there is real risk. The only people who should be seriously concerned about the Gordon pick are Carlton Mitchell and Mohamed Massaquoi, with the former likely on the outs and the latter potentially losing playing time.

The Browns have being making all kinds of unconventional-for-them moves this year. They moved up one spot in April's NFL draft to make sure they landed running back Trent Richardson, they bucked the trend by selecting Weeden in the first and now they've picked up their first supplemental draft player since quarterback Bernie Kosar in 1985.

The Gordon addition proves that the Browns are willing to do whatever it takes to improve their overall position in the league, and Gordon, mark my words, is going to make a serious impact on that offense in 2012 and beyond.

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