Josh Gordon is ready to return to the gridiron.
The talented wide receiver is applying for NFL reinstatement Wednesday, his business manager Michael Johnson told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
“Josh is living with me and is in the best place mentally that he has been in dating back years before entering the NFL,” Johnson said, per Schefter. “He has taken the proper steps to treat his issues and has followed a very strict protocol that the league and our team here has laid out for him.”
The 25-year-old receiver was reinstated last July by commissioner Roger Goodell, with a four-game suspension to start the season before voluntarily checking himself into rehab in late September to straighten out his substance abuse issues. He was subsequently placed on indefinite suspension by the league.
Since he is placed on indefinite suspension, the talented receiver will have to plead his case to Goodell in order to re-enter the league, but there is no guarantee that the commissioner will budge.
Gordon was the NFL’s leading receiver during the 2013 season, catching 87 balls for 1,646 yards and nine touchdowns. Â While his talent is undeniable, Gordon hasn’t appeared in an NFL regular-season game since 2014Â and has been suspended for 43 of his last 48 games due to multiple violations of the NFL’s substance abuse policy.
Even if Gordon is reinstated, his future with the Cleveland Browns is uncertain. The Browns drafted four receivers in the 2016 NFL Draft and gave Terrelle Pryor a season-long look at the position, so all signs point to Cleveland moving on from the talented but troubled wideout.
“We’ve really been focused, to be honest — until we saw some of the reports recently — on the guys that are on the roster,” Sashi Brown, Cleveland’s vice president of football operations said, per Schefter. “On occasion, I would check in with Josh and we would … just personally because we care for the young man. But beyond that, we really really haven’t sat down to talk about what it would be like if he gets back in.”
Gordon is sure to be a hot-topic for Brown and head coach Hue Jackson at this week’s NFL Scouting Combine.
Thumbnail photo via Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports Images