Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones has said repeatedly that he’s content going to training camp with his current group of candidates for the third-receiver role. But that didn’t prevent the Cowboys from taking a long look at former Baylor wide receiver Josh Gordon during a workout at the Houston Texans’ facility Tuesday morning.
Gordon will be the headliner in Thursday’s supplemental draft, an annual summer exercise that doesn’t normally produce this much buzz. Some talent evaluators have suggested that a team might spend a second-round pick on the 6-3, 225-pound player. I still find that incredibly hard to believe because of Gordon’s checkered past.
He had a breakout sophomore season at Baylor with more than 700 yards receiving and seven touchdowns. Gordon emerged as Robert Griffin III’s second-favorite target behind first-round pick Kendall Wright. But Gordon was suspended from the team in Aug. 2011 after being arrested for possession of marijuana in a drive-through at a Taco Bell near the campus. Griffin campaigned hard for Gordon to receive a second chance, but he was eventually dismissed from school.
He transferred to Utah, but he never played for the Utes. Gordon's forfeiting the rest of his collegiate eligibility for financial reasons. The Cowboys have a great relationship with Gordon’s head coach at Baylor, Art Briles, so you know they’ve done their homework on the wide receiver. And Briles and Gordon happen to share the same Houston-based agent.
That said, the Cowboys aren’t going to fall all over themselves for Gordon. There’s a belief that former Cowboys scouting director Jeff Ireland, now the GM for the Dolphins, might go after Gordon since the Dolphins have two third-round picks in next April’s draft thanks to the Brandon Marshall trade. Ireland was a kicker at Baylor in the early 90s and also has a good relationship with Briles.
Philadelphia-based reporter Adam Caplan was first to report that Gordon ran a 4.52 40-yard dash Tuesday, had a 36-inch vertical and was able to bench-press 225 pounds 13 times. That’s a slower time than had been predicted, but it’s not going to scare anyone away. A source from one team told me Monday that Gordon recently took a drug test and submitted it to NFL teams. The test was negative for anything that’s currently banned by the league.
Still, Gordon is viewed as a huge “risk/reward” player. One AFC scout I talked to Tuesday morning said he wouldn’t have the stomach to recommend spending a third-round pick on Gordon. But there’s a reason so many teams interrupted their summer vacations to see the wide receiver in person. He has great size and athleticism. And according to various reports, Gordon finished all his routes Tuesday despite pulling a quadriceps muscle in the process.
Hey, if he’s a little banged up heading into training camp, wouldn't he be a perfect fit for the Cowboys?
I think teams such as Buffalo, Cleveland and Miami are more likely to risk a third or fourth-round pick on Gordon than the Cowboys. But Gordon simply has too much ability for the Cowboys to ignore. In the past, Jones hasn’t been afraid to take chances on players with checkered pasts (see Pacman and Tank).
But if there’s a history of substance abuse, the Cowboys normally steer clear. If Gordon’s somehow available in the fifth or sixth round of the supplemental draft, the Cowboys would probably pounce. But if he does indeed go in the third, I don’t think Dallas will be in play.
For my Texas A&M audience, Gordon reminds me of Jeff Fuller, who is now with the Dolphins. Fuller, who hails from McKinney, Texas, is bigger than Gordon but he had a disappointing 2011 season in College Station and saw his draft stock plummet. Obviously, Griffin didn’t seem to miss Gordon that much in Baylor’s 10-win 2011 season. You have to wonder if he lobbied the Redskins to check out Gordon with the same verve he once used with Briles.
The Cowboys and Eagles were well-represented at Tuesday’s workout. Now, we’ll have to see if either team is willing to take a pretty big risk.
