Browns were frustrated Josh Gordon was not in shape

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Wednesday night on Quick Slants, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated said the Browns were frustrated that Gordon was not in football shape.

First, Breer mentions Gordon reportedly tweaking his hamstring during a promo shoot before the trade.

"The hamstring issue is more a symptom of him not being reliable," Breer said. "It wasn't like he was in any sort of disrepair when they were dealing him. It was the way he got hurt, which was outside of team activities and the fact that he showed up late the next day."

Then, Breer went on to talk about how the Browns used Gordon a lot in the season opener to prove to the receiver that he wasn't in football shape.

"I think this goes beyond just the substance abuse problem. The Browns had gotten frustrated with him, and it wasn't just the hamstring and what happened last weekend. It was also the fact that he had trouble getting himself into football shape. And I think a lot of people look at him... and by human standards, he's in great shape -- not the same thing as being in football shape. And in that first game, you might notice that they put him out there for I think 69 snaps, right? Hue Jackson said before the game, 'We didn't intend to start him,' but they did intend to play him a lot and then they said they only started him because of personnel groupings.

"My understanding is part of the reason they put him out there for that long was to show him, 'Hey, look - you may think you're in great shape, but being in football shape is something different.' And so if you watch the game, he wore down a little bit at the end and that's something they had experienced in practice, and so that's something to watch for."

"And the big question of course, and this is central to what the Patriots believe in... does he really love football that much? And that's at the center of the Patriots program when it comes to who they're going to acquire."

All signs point to Gordon getting to prove himself sooner rather than later with the Patriots.

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