Having been reinstated last September from his sixth league-issued suspension, wide receiver Josh Gordon joined the Kansas City Chiefs’ 53-man roster in early October. He appeared in 12 games with seven starts but he didn’t muster much production, with just five catches on 14 targets for 32 yards and one touchdown. After he spent two games as a healthy scratch, the team waived Gordon during the playoffs.
After that type of end to the year, it feels like it would be tough to have any big expectations for Gordon. That’s not the case for Chiefs wide receivers coach Joe Bleymaier, though. He has a great deal of confidence that this offseason has allowed Gordon to turn the corner.
“I have big expectations for Josh,” Bleymaier said. “Like you said, the offseason here, when he got here it was just (doing) as much as we could do to get him on the field and having him knowing his assignments. He is extremely smart and intelligent and he knew he tackled all of those challenges and he did what we needed last year. Now he can kind of understand (the) why, get on the same page with Pat (Mahomes), understand the timing and how he fits in with everybody else. Not only the reps, but the depth and the feel and him getting his stride back, realizing where he was when he was at the top of his game — how he was doing that. That’s really where I’ve seen him come this spring.”
