New England only receives the seventh-rounder if Gordon is inactive for ten games this season.
Gordon had 'allegedly' suffered a hamstring injury filming a commercial Friday night and showed up at the Browns practice facility in Berea on Saturday "looking not himself".
Between that and the injury, the Browns had finally had enough and announced their intention to waive Gordon on Monday, which gave interested teams enough time to place minor bids in for the former Baylor receiver.
Although several teams were said to be in talks with the Browns, the word is from several sources that the Browns simply took the highest offer, which was the fifth-rounder from New England, which one would figure to be a very late fifth and move on from Gordon.
Gordon announced today that his hamstring was now "fine" and he expects to play for the Patriots on Sunday against the Detroit Lions.
While that smells very fishy and I might even speculate that this was meant for the Browns to release Gordon, which he could then receive a larger contract from a team of his choice, the Browns being able to trade Gordon removed the plan from the table as he will now have to continue under his current contract, so the Browns may not have taken away Gordon's wish to leave Cleveland, they did make sure that he did not gain financially from his actions.
Gordon was an explosive receiver in 2013 with over 1,600 yards receiving to lead the league but has played in just eleven games since then due to various suspensions and off the field issues.
The natural Cleveland thing is for Gordon to tear up the league with New England, but who really knows what Gordon has left physically (although he still shows glimpses of elite potential) and how he'll deal with any adversity at all, so I understand the appeal to New England, but I also realize how the Browns had to throw up their hands, say that they have tried it all and he just had to go.
The Browns signed veteran wideout Rod Streater to the roster to replace Gordon.
The thirty-year-old Streater has spent time with the Raiders and 49ers before being released by the Bills after training camp.
Streater had a strong 2013 as Josh Gordon did ( 60 catches, 888 yards with Oakland), but since that season, like Gordon, Streater has disappointed as he has just 41 catches since that season.
The Browns also released Zane Gonzalez as expected after yesterday's fiasco and had some potential kickers to take a look at for his replacement.
The selection was Greg Joseph, a rookie from Florida Atlantic, who lost a duel with the Dolphins for their job to draftee Jason Sanders.
I would have preferred a veteran that is more used to kicking in bad weather, but they must see something in Joseph, who did kick a 54 yarder among his 3 for 3 attempts in the preseason.
The problem is that Joseph was successful on just 69.5 percent of his kicks in college, which isn't especially high.
It's really tough guessing on kickers because who knows who is going to be successful and like relief pitchers in baseball- they can come from nowhere and be very inconsistent from year to year.
One thing is sure though, they could not afford to trot Zane Gonzalez out in Cleveland Thursday and expect something good to happen, so I commend them for trying to correct a problem.
Lots of pieces today and a Fightheads episode coming up as well.
Back tomorrow with more!
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