The New England Patriots’ decision to release Josh Gordon remains, to a degree, a shocking one, but there’s no going back now.
After getting placed on waivers following his release from injured reserve by the Patriots, Gordon reportedly was claimed by the Seattle Seahawks on Friday. Entering the season, many suspected Gordon would be a big part of the offense, however his productivity didn’t necessarily match the expectations. He’ll finish his run with the Patriots in 2019 having made 20 catches for 297 yards and a touchdown in six games.
And it appeared his approach to things on a day-to-day basis was off-putting to the Patriots. Here’s what NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran had to say about the Gordon situation during an appearance Friday on “PFT Live.”
“His ability to get to things — look and this is a murmur and rumblings and everything else, and I want the kid to do great, I think we all do as an individual because he’s working hard at it. But I think the team had some trepidation once he wasn’t as prompt and punctual as he had been in the past. As his period of time when he was injured went on, there were occasions where he was late to meetings I understand. There were occasions they had a hard time locating him. So that in-dependability, coupled with the fact that he wasn’t extremely productive really when he was in there. They had N’Keal Harry coming back, they had just acquired Mohamed Sanu, and I think there was trepidation about, ‘OK, well if we’re looking at this again, do we want to rely on him?’ I think he had a very short rope that he was dealing with.
“So, again, that is basically the scuttlebutt here, no one’s gone on the record necessarily and said ‘Josh missed meeting X, Y and Z, or was late to X, Y, and Z, and that’s why it happened.’ But all of us with our kind of our underground sources, and this is from the radio folks who are well-plugged into the team, to other folks on the beat, have all kind of gotten the indication yeah he was yeah showing signs of un-dependability.”
If Harry is activated off IR on Saturday, the Patriots will enter Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens with Julian Edelman, Sanu, Phillip Dorsett, Harry, Jakobi Meyers, Gunner Olszewski and Matthew Slater on the wide receiver depth chart.
