Get him the ball, get out of the way: How Josh Gordon found a home in the Patriots’ offense

The football world groaned when the Browns shipped Josh Gordon to the New England Patriots for a fifth-round pick. It felt like another case of the football rich getting richer by adding a talented, yet troubled receiver.

When Gordon arrived, there was a bit of a question as to how he would fit into the Patriots’ complex passing game and gel with already established players like Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman.

The Patriots used a simple, but shockingly rare concept to help Gordon immediately become a weapon for them: they asked him to do what he does best.

New England did just that in their 31-17 win over the Green Bay Packers as Gordon reached 130 yards and a touchdown, his second 100-yard game in three weeks.

Gordon isn’t a technical route running savant like Antonio Brown, but he is big, fast, and a terror with the ball in his hands. Here are a few plays that show what Gordon does well and how the Patriots find success with him in their game plan.

There aren’t many cornerbacks who can cover Gordon in one-on-one situations. His explosion off the line is rare for a receiver of his size. Once he gets past the corner covering him, he just needs a chance at the ball in the air to create a big play.

Even with the all the games Gordon has missed through his career, he’s still an explosive presence on the field. That shows up on shorter slant routes as well as the longer routes down the field.

Again, Gordon is great at getting off of the line of scrimmage. On this slant route, the Packers cornerback has no chance to catch up Gordon once he releases inside. Gordon breaks inside, accelerates away from the corner, and the ball is delivered inside perfectly for him to pick up yards after the catch.

Once Gordon got the ball into his hands, he was able to pick up an extra six yards with the cornerback trailing him, and he even spun his way forward to maximize the amount of yards he was gaining.

New England has also allowed Gordon to get yards after the catch on shorter routes where he immediately has room to work.

On this play, Gordon is just running a little hitch route. With the way that the Packers coverage unveiled itself, Gordon immediately had about five yards of room to work with and found a nice lane to split the two defenders coming towards him.

Gordon accelerated up the field for a first down and almost made a Packers defender miss with a spin move once he got going. There are only a handful of receivers at Gordon’s size who have the vision and the ball-carrying abilities that he has — these are the areas where he wins.

Gordon’s spatial awareness also helps him when the ball is in the air and potentially in danger of being intercepted.

Like the other plays, Gordon isn’t running a flashy route. The Patriots have him posted as an outside receiver and just run him up the sideline.

The Packers have a safety that’s rotating over the top and in position to make a play on the ball. As the ball arrives, so does the safety, but Gordon undercuts the safety before the pass can be intercepted and exploded for the game-sealing 51-yard touchdown. He showed off fantastic awareness to know where he was on the field in relation to where the ball was arriving and where the safety was traveling from.

These are the plays that make Gordon a great receiver, and he doesn’t even need to run a complete route tree to be an impact player.

The game plan for Gordon is easy: run slants, deep routes, and plays that get him in space immediately — then get the hell out of the way. As usual, the Patriots just know how to put their players in position to succeed and that’s showing with the recent success that Josh Gordon is having.