Kyle Odegard has been a professional journalist for two decades, with four years of experience in the sports betting industry. He was a beat writer for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals from 2013-2021 and previously covered...
Read Full Bio
Josh Gordon has joined the ranks of retired NFL players, and we delved deep into the emotions associated with that in this feature story on Wednesday.
While Gordon will forever be known for his untapped potential on the field, it’s clear he’s still a big fan of football. Gordon said he loves to watch Red Zone and has dubbed himself a ‘couch coach’ as he breaks down players.
We chatted about the Browns, Drake Maye, playing with Mahomes and Brady, George Pickens and more in this exclusive Q&A.
Q: Are there certain receivers you really enjoy watching?
Josh Gordon: “I was really happy to see Mike Evans do his thing this past season, another Texas guy. Tee Higgins. Jerry Jeudy’s performance. Courtland Sutton. Brandin Cooks had an amazing season. Terry McLaurin, I’m hoping he has like a 1,300-yard season coming up to really put a stamp on his stardom. Khalil Shakir, Buffalo’s guy. I want them to find a way to get the ball in his hands a little bit more. He’s fast as hell. So quick.”
Q: Does any wideout remind you of your own game?
Josh Gordon: “Of my game specifically? I like George Pickens. He’s one of those guys that is 6-2, 6-3, big playmaker capability. I’d love to see him make a huge splash (in 2025), like a 1,400-yard season. He’s a dominant-level guy. It should be child’s play in the secondary after awhile against some of these teams. There’s no way they should be able to play zone defense and stop you. There’s no way. But George Pickens and Tee Higgins, I think maybe they emulate my game, or I see my game in them to some degree.”
Q: People have questioned Pickens’ effort at times. That comes from the outside, so it’s tough to know exactly what’s going on, but do you have advice for someone like that who has the talent to be a superstar?
Josh Gordon: “The off-the-field stuff, I can’t touch on it too much because it’s personal, right? I can’t say if he’s dealing with anything, but if someone says it then it becomes a thing, and it becomes reality: oh, he’s a bad-effort guy.
“Maybe he is just tired, but that’s a part of professionalism. If you’re the No. 1 guy, you have to always be in the game, and there’s never an off switch with you. We don’t want to see you bitch and moan. We want to see you go 110% because that’s what you’re here to do. If that’s the demand, and if he’s ready for that, then the rest should take care of itself. He’ll make that decision and you’ll see a different player. Mentally, he’ll be locked in. Because talent isn’t the issue.”
Q: You played with Myles Garrett, who is now looking to leave Cleveland to improve his chances of a Super Bowl. What do you make of that potential breakup?
Josh Gordon: “I know it’s got to be heartbreaking for him. Everybody’s got their reasons personally or professionally, so it’s hard for me to even touch on those topics. I wish him the best and I wish it could have worked out. I think it did, really. I really do think it did. Cleveland got a great, great player and he gave it his all. I hope that everything works out for him in the end, and from the Browns’ standpoint. But you know, maybe the Browns will be able to draft somebody coming up here soon, so we’ll see.”
Q: True, Abdul Carter could be there, though people are saying that he might go number one. As for the quarterback, when you look at Cleveland, do you think they should draft one of those young guys? Would you look at the veteran market?
Josh Gordon: “Man, that’s tough. I like Abdul Carter. He’s as dynamic of a player as there is in this draft. If not, if he goes one, it might be Cam Ward. Or they might go with a playmaker in Travis Hunter and really just go for the splash player and then build around that. That might be enough, and then working the free agency pool to strengthen the roster, make some trades.
“It’s tough because the draft can be the luck of the draw. Cleveland has been up in the top-5 of the draft for awhile now. They’re due. This might be the pick that does it for them. Maybe Cam Ward or Travis Hunter.”
Q: Travis, I think will, want to play corner and wideout as much as possible. Obviously you know how intricate it is to play wide receiver in the NFL. How tough would it be to play both at a high level? Is it realistic?
Josh Gordon: “I’m not sure how realistic it really is, at this level, to do both. It was astonishing just to watch him do it at the D-I level in my old division, the Big 12. I was thinking, alright, well, if he stays away from the ball, but no, he’s around the ball, he’s making breakup plays and I’m like, ‘Man, this kid is insane.’ So, I would make a package for him and see how it goes, and probably start him at DB. Because if you’re a number one receiver, you’re the guy, and you’re not coming out the game. But he’s that special guy that they’ll add packages, similar to what Andy Reid does in Kansas City with Xavier Worthy, put him at a utility position and find out what he could do.”
Q: So do you watch the Browns a decent amount?
Josh Gordon: “With the local (Texas) games it’s tough, but whatever’s on Red Zone, I’m definitely watching. I watched quite a few of them last year and I try to watch all of them.”
Q: What are your thoughts on their receivers? Like we talked about, if they do draft Travis Hunter, it adds to it, but do you like the group?
Josh Gordon: “I’m really happy for the way Jerry Jeudy came on after getting traded. We’ve got to hang onto him (long-term) and see how that develops. It seems like he’s in a good headspace. He’s letting it all go, and he showed out in Cleveland, so that’s good to see.
“And Elijah Moore, he made a lot of big-time catches, clutch third downs out of the slot. And a guy like Travis Hunter would add some variety to it, give the quarterback more choices, when we figure out which quarterback is going to be back there. And David Njoku helps the rest of the guys get open. It’s a deep threat team. It really is. It’s built to go vertical, built for speed. They’re just a couple guys away.”
Q: I wanted to chat a bit about New England, and I was wondering, when you went there, did it feel like a markedly different organization compared to the other stops with the way Belichick ran things?
Josh Gordon: “The New England Patriots definitely have their own unique environment to them. Before even getting there, I knew about them and I hadn’t even been there. It’s top to bottom, from the administration on down, to the cleaning crew, to the the janitors, the field staff. Everybody is kind of — I wouldn’t say necessarily no-nonsense, because you’re gonna have fun, but we had fun by winning. So if you if we’re not aiming on a path for a goal of winning, we’re not having fun, and that’s just that’s another growth process and a professionalism I had to figure out and grow through and understand.
“There’s different ways to win, but it worked best by setting the goals high. I went from a 1-15 team to a team that won a Super Bowl, and multiple times at that, so it was night and day. It’s not for everybody, because a lot of coaches might not have that mentality or that type of outlook on the game, but the Belichick tree is so big now that I think the secret’s out. Everybody’s trying to reach a certain standard. The game has evolved and the attention to detail is there. and it speaks for itself really at this point. The culture is football first, it’s New England first, and it’s diehard. For football purists, it’s the best place to be for football.”
Q: I wanted to talk a little bit about Tom Brady and being around him daily like that. What stood out to you about the player he became, from sixth-round pick to probably the greatest player ever?
Josh Gordon: “You see the sacrifices Tom made, and you’re like, man, the ego kind of goes out the window immediately and you just start hitting it. You go to work non-stop, and you see he’s there at like 4:30 am. It’s a ridiculous grind, but it works.He’s one of those guys that will run through a wall for you, and it reverberates throughout an entire locker room. He’s a special guy.”
Q: Looking at the Patriots present-day, Drake Maye is off to a nice start. If you can get a number one receiver for a young quarterback like that, like what does that mean for the offense?
Josh Gordon: “There’s nothing like having a number one wide receiver, the dynamic it brings to the team. If it’s a true number one guy, it draws so much so much of the defense his way, it opens up everything else for the system to do what it’s supposed to do. You gotta take account for or a number one wide receiver, and if Drake Maye has that — he’s incredibly talented. I’ve been watching since his days in North Carolina. I messaged him, actually, a couple times before he got drafted. I let him know that I was a fan.
“I think for New England, free agency might be a big one this year for a wide receiver. If they were to go after a guy like Tee Higgins, I think that would be huge. If they could find a way to lay out the red carpet — that’s not a team that will usually do that for a receiver — but I think they might be ready to make a different transition. They got the quarterback, so now they’re just a couple of X-factors away. It might be a free agency play. to see that they can find, see what they can get.”
Q: You mentioned sending Drake a message. Will you do that with players every once in awhile, or was there a special significance to why you messaged Drake?
Josh Gordon: “It was just on Instagram. You just see that follow back (icon), I was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know he followed me.’ I’m like, ‘Look, bro, I like your game too.’ And sure enough, years later, he ended up getting drafted to the Patriots, I was like, ‘This guy’s a dawg and I knew it back then.’ Drake Maye, they’ve got a gem over there. He’s going to do some special things for them.
“But, no, it’s just organic. Some of the guys like another football guy’s game, and that may have been it, man. He might have been a fan of me, and he probably didn’t know I was a fan of his as well. It’s like that for a couple of young guys. I’m like, ‘This guy’s a game changer, he’s got it. And I just like to wait and see and play that I-told-you-so game with myself, as a couch coach.”
Q: We talked about Tom Brady, and you played with Patrick Mahomes, too. I don’t know how many guys experienced playing with both in their primes like that. From a playing perspective, how do they compare to each other?
Josh Gordon: “They are two entirely different quarterbacks, from their deliveries to their thought process on the game. There’s two different ways of getting it done, and they both get it done tremendously well. Pat’s more of an innovator on the spur of the moment. And then Tom’s more of a repetition guy. He could throw it blindly because it’s been there and he’s seen it so many times. It’s like clockwork.
“It’s two different varieties. It’s tough to compare them. They’re both a level of elite that’s almost uncomparable. Only to each other, basically. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve played a lot of football with many quarterbacks, and those are two special guys.
“The arm velocity from Pat is unworldly and then, the timing, the precision, the accuracy of Tom — from a receiver standpoint, you can’t even outrun him because the ball is already in the air. You gotta find it. You gotta look up and find it. Don’t be a robot, just be where you’re supposed to be and he makes the job easy. I could write a book with all the details on their differences if you really wanted to break it down. It’s an apple and orange conversation right there, but they’re both great fruit.”
Q: You mentioned Xavier Worthy earlier. DeAndre Hopkins and Travis Kelce are nearing the end of their careers. How important do you think it will be to have Worthy, Rashee Rice, those young guys step up as it’s transitioning offensively for Mahomes?
Josh Gordon: “Yeah, I believe they’re going to have to. Xavier, they’re putting him everywhere and they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to do with him. They utilize him as often as possible in the biggest moments of the game. He’s one of those guys that the defense is gonna have to key in on and at the point in the season, they’re going to have to develop somebody else. I’m not sure for how long Travis and D-Hop are going to be able to muster that same level of performance.
“(Chiefs GM) Brett Veach, you’ve got to have faith in Brett, and I know they do. Veach is going to find the right guys through this draft and the next few drafts to find more guys like Xavier. It’s really going to be interesting to see the type of offense — if they go with their traditional system, more of a spread the ball out laterally as opposed to vertically without Travis in the middle posting up and making that an option. They’re probably gonna have to go big in free agency, with a true number one wide receiver or a very good number two guy that they like. They’re gonna have to figure out how to speed up the outside perimeter of the field.”
Q: You played with Robert Griffin III for a year at Baylor and then got suspended in 2011 and transferred to Utah. What would it have been like to play together the year he won the Heisman?
Josh Gordon: “It’s definitely another one of those what-if scenarios I wish would have worked out. We talked about it all the time. He would have won the Heisman even by a longer shot. Let’s just say that. He was a shoo-in already, but we would have had a great time playing and trying to win the Big 12 Championship, and just putting Baylor on the map.
“Those were good days, really good days. And he’s still doing great things in the community, football on TV. He’s all over the place. Griff is a really good guy. I miss those days.”
Q: Do you keep up with the program? It seems to be on a bit of an upswing right now.
Josh Gordon: “I definitely do. It was tough to look at during some of those down seasons, but we’re bouncing back. The portal and NIL has made it different for everyone. It’s competitive as ever, and guys are seeing Baylor as a launching pad, a springboard, to the next level. They’re taking advantage of it, and that’s good for us, as long as they stay long enough to get the job done.
“They’ve got a d-lineman at the combine right now and a couple other guys. The talent in football was not always there, definitely not always there, but it’s good to see it be more consistent. Guys want to go there and guys want to transfer there. It’s good to know we’ve got the money to do it. We can stay in the mix.”
Q: There is such a recruiting element now, whether it’s high school or the transfer portal. Could you see yourself helping the program out? Obviously you are one of the more talented guys that’s come through there.
Josh Gordon: “I think so. I believe at a point in time that’s where I’ll be headed. Whether it’s at Baylor — I’d love for it to be a Baylor, obviously — I think I’ll have to put my foot in the water at the college level at some point and see what I could offer their players. I know I have, obviously, a depth of knowledge to offer at an elite level, to really kind of increase the pace of play, the variety of play and the skill level for a group of wide receivers.
“Depending on the situation, yeah, I think it might be something that would be good for me to do. I’d look forward to it. I really think it’s something I’d excel at. It’s just a matter of timing, when I’m ready to stop watching TV and put playbooks and lessons together. I’d have to really lock in and hone in on that craft, because coaching is a different game. You can say goodbye to your personal life. So I think it may be an option for me here in the future.”
