Do the Cleveland Browns need Josh Gordon?
By Cory Buck
With all the wheeling and dealing the Cleveland Browns accomplished at the draft, you’d think they weren’t, well, the Cleveland Browns. Silly us. Recent statements made by Cleveland GM Ray Farmer extend the insanity that is the Browns. Apparently, Farmer isn’t impressed by the idea that a team can rise and fall as its star receiver goes, even as his own sits and waits for judgement on a drug beef in a decision that will surely affect Cleveland’s record.
"“I would say ‘how important are those guys?'” Farmer told WKRK-FM in Cleveland, per The Plain Dealer. “Name the last big-time receiver to win a Super Bowl. Name the last mega-guy. (Gordon) matters to me because I like the guy and I think he’s a really good player, but at the end of the day, when you look at the teams that have these mega-receivers, name the last guy that won a Super Bowl?… There are none. The last guy that really helped his team get there was T.O. (Terrell Owens).”"
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Farmer makes a solid point, but he fails to mention that most of these big name receivers have been stuck on perennial failures like the Lions and, well, the Browns. Something tells me Tom Brady would love to find out what happens when a big time receiver in his prime lands in New England. He had that guy for about one year, and that team was pretty OK. A receiver’s failures are often a reflection of the failure of the team to get it together. Both deserve a share of the blame.
How does this affect the Browns as they prepare for a season without aforementioned stud receiver Josh Gordon? Clearly Farmer wants no excuses on the field. Cleveland sports one of the youngest teams in the league and they need any vote of confidence they can get. In diminishing the role of a top flight wide receiver, Farmer is simply trying to reduce the chatter to the team on the field. One can’t blame him for using the media to that end. As long as he doesn’t sincerely believe that his team will be better off with one of the two best receivers in the game (based on last year, at least) then Browns fans can feel safe that their team won’t kick them in the teeth. Yet.