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The Kansas City Chiefs officially signed WR Josh Gordon to the 53-man roster on Tuesday.
It was reported that Gordon would have a good shot to play against the Bills in Week 5 ahead of last week’s game. He seems to be trending in that direction, but on Wednesday, Chiefs HC Andy Reid was still non-committal on making him active for the game.
Reid felt comfortable bringing Gordon up to the 53-man roster because he’s in tremendous physical condition. However, Reid cautioned how this practice week goes will determine whether he’s active against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night.
“He feels good. He feels like he’s in pretty good shape and wants to get going,” Reid told reporters on Wednesday. “He’s got experience, and I’ve learned over the years that the veteran guys will tell you how they’re feeling and where they’re at because they know what’s ahead of them and they surely don’t want to embarrass themselves. So, he feels good about getting in there and kind of getting it started, and we’ll see where it goes from there. Whether he’s active or not, we’ll just see how it goes.”
Gordon has also done a good job with the playbook so far, picking things up quickly per Reid.
“He’s very smart and has picked things up quickly,” Reid said. “Now, he’s had a little flavor of the offense when he was in Cleveland, so he understands some of the language.”
Reid is speaking about Gordon’s Year 1 offensive coordinator, Brad Childress, who was an offensive assistant with Kansas City from 2013 through 2017. A lot of the language related to the spread offense is the same as he used with Cleveland when he first entered the league.
While Gordon is getting more familiar with the offense, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes has also been able to strike a rapport with Gordon quickly. He cited Gordon’s “Texas ties” as something they’ve been able to bond over.
“No offense to (Gehrig) Dieter because he’s a Yankees fan, but we talked about the Astros,” Mahomes said. “We talked about stuff like that, him going to Baylor and things like that.”
They’ve also worked to build their rapport on the field as well, with Mahomes taking time outside of practice to help build a connection.
“You can tell he loves playing football, he loves being here, loves being part of this locker room and the talent, you can just see,” Mahomes said of Gordon. “I mean how fast he is, how big he is, the way he’s able to get in and out of cuts. I’ve been able to throw to him a little bit here and now kind of off to the side a little bit and I think we’ll try to do whatever we can to bring him up to speed as quickly as possible and try to utilize his skill set.”
Ultimately, Mahomes has learned that Gordon is the real deal and that he wants to contribute to the success of the team. Whether that contribution begins on Sunday or later remains to be seen.
“Just how humble of a guy he is,” Mahomes said of Gordon. “He truly is someone who wants to be here, wants to be a part of this locker room. I’m sure we’ll keep building that relationship as the season goes on.”
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