ATLANTA -- The Patriots traded for Josh Gordon on September 17, a day after the team’s impotent offensive performance in a loss at Jacksonville.
Six days later, with Gordon inactive, the Patriots were even less impressive, getting trounced at Detroit.
The team was 1-2. Rob Gronkowski was being doubled and tripled. Julian Edelman was still suspended. With defenses unconcerned about Tom Brady picking them apart they keyed on the Patriots running game, where the offensive line was doing less than zero to open up holes for Sony Michel.
Thinking the oft-suspended Gordon, four years removed from his 2013 breakout season for the Browns, was going to be part of the solution? That was hard evidence of Patriots desperation.
But it isn’t hyperbole to say that Gordon helped save the Patriots season. Over the next 11 games before he was again suspended for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, Gordon chipped in 40 catches for 730 yards and four touchdowns.
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He became the outside-the-numbers threat the Patriots were sorely missing, taking attention away from Gronkowski and Edelman and helping diversify the offense so that play-action was something defenses had to take seriously.
New England Patriots
Gordon went into the lineup against Miami. The Patriots won that game 38-7 and scored 38, 43, 38, 25 and 31 over the next six games, all wins.
Interestingly, during that stretch, a knee injury to Michel and the continued ineffectiveness/disaffectedness of Gronkowski only ramped up Brady’s reliance on Gordon.
When the Patriots went to Tennessee and ran into a defensive buzzsaw, a constantly-pressured Brady threw Gordon’s way 12 times. Some had no shot of being completed but the fact Gordon was the target was also proof that Gordon was the receiver Brady believed could win even when he wasn’t open.
The Patriots went into the bye after that and came out intent on spreading the ball around more.
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In the next three games, Gordon caught 13 of the 17 balls sent his way for 224 yards and a touchdown. His last game was his most ineffective -- a one-catch performance in a loss to the Steelers. By then, Gordon certainly knew a suspension loomed. He was withdrawing from teammates in the week prior to being suspended on December 20.
Gauging Gordon’s impact on the team for those 11 weeks is fascinating. His skill and production definitely helped them win games. And the outsized reliance on him, which the team addressed after the loss to Tennessee, made them recalibrate.
“They wouldn’t be here without him,” said Troy Brown on Tuesday. “But they wouldn’t be this good with him.”
Brown believes the renewed involvement of Chris Hogan and Phillip Dorsett -- both of whom saw their production and targets crater when Gordon was on the team -- makes the offense more diverse and tougher to deal with.
Doug Kyed of NESN reported earlier this week that Gordon is currently at an inpatient drug rehab facility in Gainesville, Florida. The Patriots are paying for his care.
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“He was a real good guy, and there was a connection,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft said on Boston Sports Tonight. “Unfortunately, people like that need mentoring at a young age, but when it becomes addiction, addiction is something that is way beyond our . . . We gave him tremendous support on a daily basis, and he was worthy. But I think we as a society have to try to help these young people not to get addicted in the first place, and that’s the sad part of this. He’s a good guy -- a really good guy. It makes us sad.”
He remains on the team’s roster on the “suspended” list. He is, said Matthew Slater, on their minds.
“It would be foolish for any of us to think we’d be here without his contributions this season,” Slater said Tuesday. “He was very important to what we did. You have a guy with those physical gifts who’s able to take over a game on his own, there aren’t a lot of those guys walking around Planet Earth.
“He was a big part of what we did. He helped us. We wouldn’t be here without his contributions so we’re certainly mindful of that and we’re wishing him the best. We want to see him healthy, want to see him in a great spot and ultimately that’s bigger than the game of football.”
Dorsett, whose production rose when Gordon was suspended, saw up close the effort Gordon gave to learning the Patriots system.
“He was really important. He made a lot of plays for us and he was a really good guy. He came in, tried to do the right thing, learned things really fast, asked all the right questions and did his job,” he said.
“He is part of the team,” Dorsett added. “He contributed this year and at the end of the day he was here and is still on this team as far as we’re concerned. We want him to be here as a teammate and as a person. It is a little heartbreaking.”
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