Mike Pettine says Josh Gordon lacks effort in Browns practice
By Cory Buck
Josh Gordon is going through the motions of a summer workout program and organized team activities with the Cleveland Browns, even as he waits to hear on the exact duration of the suspension awaiting him for the 2014 season. Unfortunately it appears those motions are a bit too tired for the liking of Cleveland’s head coach Mike Pettine.
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“It is something we’ve talked about and from what I understand he’s made some improvement,” Pettine told the Cleveland Plain Dealer “But it is a work in progress.”
Wait, so NFL receivers don’t go all out on every play in practice? In this case, it feels tougher to judge Gordon. He’s clearly not going to be playing regular season games for a while and that could very well be creeping into his head and affecting his outlook on OTAs and training camp.
As NFL.com notes, this is nothing new for Pettine, who was the defensive coordinator for the New York Jets during the tenure of receiver Santonio Holmes, who was also known for loafing in practice. Even Pettine sounded somewhat sympathetic in his conversation with the Plain Dealer. “I’m a big believer in quality of reps versus quantity of reps. If I’m a player and I know that I’m going to be out there for 40 full-speed team snaps I may have a tendency to pace myself.”
It will be interesting to see how Pettine handles this situation, as well as the impending absence of Gordon, who is still waiting to hear how long he’ll be suspended in 2014. For now at least, the team has Gordon and they’ll hope to get as much of the receiver as they can in what time they have him.