Signing Josh Gordon off waivers from Patriots a quintessential Pete Carroll Seahawks move
Surprise!
Even coach Pete Carroll is surprised the Seahawks were able to get 2013 All-Pro wide receiver Josh Gordon off waivers Friday.
The Seahawks (6-2) were 28th in the 32-team NFL in waiver-claim order, which is in reverse order of current league standings. That means 27 teams passed on claiming the 28-year-old Gordon.
It’s a quintessential Carroll move. It continues the coach’s tradition of Marshawn Lynch, Percy Harvin, Dion Jordan, Brandon Marshall, even Lendale White and others signing with Seattle since Carroll took over the team in 2010: Bring in a veteran who’s shown unique physical talent in the league but has been derailed by off-the-field issues.
The 68-year-old coach with chic, players-loving ways strongly believes he can coach and mentor any supreme talent into his team culture in Seattle.
“I mean, I’ve said it a million times to you guys: We are always looking for guys that have something special about them,” Carroll said following Friday’s practice for Sunday’s home game against Tampa Bay (2-5).
“He’s a big-play guy. He has been able to really stretch the field. And I know guys that have worked with him and coached him. They rave about his talent and play-making ability.”
If all goes well in his first work with the Seahawks next week, Gordon will make his Seattle debut in the team’s next game Nov. 11 at NFC West-leading San Francisco.
His newest quarterback Russell Wilson welcomed Gordon to Seattle in a very-2019 way:
Gordon has 20 touchdowns and an average of more than 17 yards per catch in his 58-game career. He had 87 catches for a league-leading 1,676 yards for the Cleveland Browns in 2013, his All-Pro and Pro Bowl season.
But entering the 2018 season, Gordon had missed 43 of Cleveland’s previous 48 games because of suspensions. He has fought through substance abuse, which he told GQ in 2017 began when he was in seventh grade. The NFL suspended him for the entire 2015 season for repeated violations of the league’s substance-abuse policy. He applied for reinstatement in 2016 but failed another drug test and the league denied his reinstatement. After two stays in rehabilitation and treatment facilities, Gordon eventually got reinstated by the NFL and played in five games for the Browns late in 2017.
Seahawks linebacker Mychal Kendricks was briefly with the Browns with Gordon in training camp before the 2018 season.
“He was cool, man,” Kendricks said Friday. “Just a cool dude.”
Kendricks had not heard the news the Seahawks had added Gordon until a reporter told him at his locker following practice Friday.
“It’s lit,” Kendricks said. “It’s REAL lit.”
New England traded a fifth-round pick to the Browns in Sept. 2018 to acquire him. Late last season, after playing in 11 games and catching 40 passes for New England, Gordon announced he was stepping away from football to focus on his mental health. Around that time the NFL suspended him indefinitely for violating the terms of his conditional reinstatement under the league’s substance-abuse policy. Commissioner Roger Goodell lifted Gordon’s suspension in August.
He caught 20 passes in 36 targets for 287 yards and a touchdown in six games for the unbeaten Patriots this season before he went on injured reserve last month with a knee injury.
He hasn’t been active for a full season since his rookie one, 2012 with the Browns.
“He is a unique talent,” Carroll said.
Gordon had been playing through a bad knee he banged in the Patriots’ home win against the Giants last month. He never played another game for New England. The Patriots took Gordon off injured reserve Thursday and waived him. Coach Bill Belichick said Gordon passed his physical with the Patriots to come off IR. New England then decided it no longer had a place for Gordon.
The Seahawks and Carroll do.
“We will take a look at him next week and see what he looks like,” Carroll said.
To make room on the 53-man active roster for Gordon, the Seahawks released veteran pass rusher Dekoda Watson two days after they had signed him.
Carroll said claiming Gordon when the Seahawks already had seven wide receivers and leave two rookie draft-pick ones inactive each game—Gary Jennings and John Ursua—was a matter of Gordon’s talent winning out over team need. Seattle could use a productive pass rusher or three for a team ranked 25th in the NFL with 13 sacks through eight games.
This story was originally published November 1, 2019 at 2:43 PM.
