Josh Gordon opens up about where he stands in an football life that has included 56 games worth of suspensions. He says John Dorsey has made a big difference and gets a big endorsement from Jarvis Landry.
BEREA Josh Gordon appears bigger. He seems more in touch. He sounds at peace.
The 27-year-old wideout who has come through troubles enough for a 47-year-old says he is in the best phase of his life.
For Cleveland Browns purposes, he notes, he is fully invested in being part of a top-shelf group on a rising team.
"In my opinion," Gordon said Tuesday before a minicamp practice, "I think we're the best receiver corps in the league … already."
How can a team coming off an 0-16 year have reached such a place? Fellow wideout Jarvis Landry didn't blink when informed of Gordon's bold words.
"He ain't lyin'," said Landry, who averaged more than 105 catches across his previous three seasons with he Dolphins.
It is the spring of big talk. Landry says he sees himself as "the best receiver in the league." Gordon topped the NFL with 1,646 receiving yards in 2013. Corey Coleman finally has a supporting cast that might allow him to express the juice he was supposed to bring when he was the first wideout picked in the 2016 draft.
"We have Todd Haley calling plays," said Landry. "We've got (quarterback) Tyrod (Taylor) back here. We've got Josh back there. We've got Corey back there. And we've got a young cat coming up."
Rookie Antonio Callaway impresses Landry as a fourth-round draft steal.
Overall … that good? Already? Really?
Rookie No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield isn't debating Gordon and Landry.
"I've never seen a receiving corps like this," he said.
Gordon's past naturally slams the brakes on runaway hyperbole.
He hasn't been in spring practice since 2014 amid a tidal wave of suspensions tied to alcohol and drug use.
He has been suspended for 56 games, including the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons, since arriving as a second-round pick in the 2012 supplemental draft.
The first of the suspensions was for the first two games of the 2014 season. He played the next 14 games, enough to lead the league with those 1,646 yards. Since then, however, he has appeared in only 10 games across four seasons.
Five of those 10 games were at the end of the 2017 campaign. In the last of them, he caught four passes for 115 yards at Pittsburgh.
He came through them without incident. He made it from January to June avoiding trouble that could get him permanently suspended from the league.
On Tuesday, before heading to the field for practice, he smiled quietly when asked if he is in a good place now, ready to forge something of a normal career.
"There are probably some other people you should ask about what they see in me," he said.
He understands that there is a strain of Johnny Manziel in his past. What he has said hasn't matched what really was.
Landry, a fifth-year pro brought in partly to be the leader of the wide receiver room, says everything about Gordon impresses him.
"We have dinners. We hang out at Cavs games," Landry said. "Josh is very intellectual. He's very smart."
The only trace of a cloud coming from Landry was in his saying, "He's hard to get a hold of sometimes."
It is odd to imagine Gordon emerging as the mentor of the wideout group. But you never know. He will turn 28 in April; Landry won't be 26 until November; Coleman is 23; Callaway is 21.
Gordon opened up about his problems in a 2017 mini-documentary produced by Uninterrupted. A slice of his past life, in his words:
"I found myself around the city of Gainesville just wandering, looking for a drug dealer. Looking for people on the street corner, whatever, smelled like weed, somebody that looked like they had something, asking random people, knocking on like smokeshop storefronts seeing where I could find some stuff at. I was just looking for something, some type of relief.
"I was walking down the boulevard at 11:30 at night, and that night in particular I couldn't find anybody with drugs and I just began to have a flashback and remembered all the negative things that have happened in my life that transpired, like what led up to this point? How did it get this bad? Like 'It's so dark out here, I'm all alone, what the hell am I doing?' I was scared. I was scared for my life."
On Tuesday, Gordon gave this version of his approach to current life:
"I'm focused on being a professional, being a father, being a brother, being a son," he said.
One of new general manager John Dorsey's first decisions was committing to the continued development of Gordon.
"I definitely like what Mr. Dorsey is doing here," Gordon said. "It's a real family dynamic, and I'm enjoying it.
"It's definitely night and day from when I first got here. The amount of support I've received from people is above and beyond, whether I've asked for it or not.
"Right now, it's a bunch of small victories, day to day … having some structure in my life."
As an aside, Gordon said the atmosphere Dorsey has shaped is ideal for Callaway, whose off-field issues dropped him in the draft.
"Right now, Antonio is in the best place he could be," Gordon said.
When Gordon led the league in receiving yards, everyone said he was a physical freak, big and fast with a sixth sense for getting open.
He is listed at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds on the 2018 roster, barely different than his measurements at the 2012 Combine (6-3 1/8, 224). He appears heavier than that now, which would come from the intense workout programs designed to leave him stronger than he has ever been.
As mentioned at the top, Gordon seems at peace.
In one breath, he says, "I can't imagine myself having this much fun doing anything else."
In another: "I plan on exceeding everything I've done in the past."
Reach Steve at 330-580-8347 or
steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP