Written by Thomas Moore

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Well, we have to admit we didn’t see that one coming.

Just like 99.9 percent of Cleveland Browns fans we had no idea who Josh Gordon was just a few days ago. But then the news came out that he would be part of Thursday’s Supplemental Draft, and that he had first-round talent (according to some) and that the Browns, painfully thin at wide receiver, were possibly interested in him.

And, suddenly, it was welcome to Cleveland, Josh, as the Browns used a second-round pick on the former Baylor player (the team will not have a second-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft).

“We are obviously really excited,” Browns general manager Tom Heckert said after making the selection. “(Josh) is a guy that we saw back when he was playing in 2010. He is a guy that we targeted and we really felt good about. We are happy we had the chance to get him. He is a guy that can come in here and be an eventual starter for us and make plays for us. I think anytime you draft a guy there is always some risk involved, but we think we got a good football player and we were able to get him in the second round.”

Some will call this a gamble on the Browns part, saying the team should have held onto their second-round pick for next year as it will presumably be a high selection. There’s some truth to that, but the team has done far worse in the second round in past years, especially when it comes to the wide receiver position.

So what do we know about Gordon?

According to NFL.com, Gordon can “gain ground very quickly with his long stride, has a huge catching radius and can create after the catch with both speed and elusiveness.”

Gordon caught 42 passes for 714 yards and seven touchdowns, tying for the team lead, while playing for the Bears in 2010. He was part of a wide receiver group that included Kendall Wright (taken in the first round of April’s draft by Tennessee) and Terrance Williams, who some are projecting as a first-round pick in next year’s draft. Those numbers would have undoubtedly gone up last year if had still been at Baylor with quarterback Robert Griffin III.

There’s the rub, of course, as Gordon got into trouble in 2010 when he and teammate Willie Jefferson were arrested after falling asleep in a car at a Taco Bell with marijuana in the car. Then in 2011 Gordon was suspended from the team indefinitely for, in his words, a failed marijuana test (apparently the Baptists look down upon those things; perhaps Gordon should have considered a Big 10 school).

Gordon transferred to Utah, sat out an NCAA-mandated season, and then decided to enter the Supplemental Draft and, ultimately, to the Browns.

So what about that background?

“It’s something that we really did our homework on, there’s no question about it,” Heckert said. “We brought the kid in and met with him here then I talked to a zillion guys at both Baylor and Utah. To be honest with you, I couldn’t find anybody to say one bad thing about the kid. I really enjoyed meeting with him. It’s something that is out there that we think we have done our homework on. But to say we’re 100 percent, we’re not 100 percent on anybody in the draft, but we felt good enough that we think he is going to be a positive influence on our team.

“I drilled him pretty hard when I was with him. He didn’t back down and he told me everything that I thought I needed to hear from him. He promised that he would be a guy that we are going to love having in Cleveland. To me, he seemed pretty fired up about being a Brown. When he left he said he hoped we were the team that picked him.”

Gordon’s former coach at Baylor, Art Briles, also had good things to say about Gordon.

"He's a great person off the field,” Briles said. “He's got a heart, great soul, great mind. You know, he made a mistake or two. If everyone wants to throw that first stone, let’s open up all the chapters in everybody’s lives and see where we are at. I’m just thankful and grateful for him that’s he getting the opportunity and there’s  no doubt in my mind he’s  going to make the most of it, because of how intellectual and physically gifted he is.”

As for Gordon, it sounds as if he’s learned his lesson.

“Leaving Baylor was the hardest thing,” he told The Houston Chronicle prior to the Supplemental Draft. “Everything I thought I had, everything in front of me, just went down the drain. I didn’t want to stop chasing my dream, so I transferred, sat out the season and worked as hard as I could to start from scratch.

“It was just so hard. I’d get up in the morning, turn on ESPN, and there they (Bears) were, some of my best friends doing such great things. They did exactly what we believed we were capable of doing when I was there. Not being a part of it was just the hardest thing of all.”

This is the second year in a row the Browns have selected a wide receiver that had to sit out the previous year because of discipline problems. Last year it was North Carolina’s Greg Little, who ended up playing in all 16 games last season, catching 61 passes for 709 yards and two touchdowns.

“It’s almost exactly the same,” Heckert said. “(Josh) did practice, so it’s a little different in that aspect. He practiced with Utah the entire time so he has been doing something. That’s the difference, but he hasn’t played in a real game in a while. That’s something he is going to have to get back used to, but at least he practiced with them.”

There is another very big difference Heckert failed to point out. Little put up his numbers last year catching passes from a quarterback combination of Colt McCoy and Seneca Wallace, while operating in an offense without a reliable running game.

Gordon, on the other hand, will be part of an offense that will feature rookie running back Trent Richardson and have rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden throwing the ball. If Little can hit the field after not playing for a year and put those numbers with that offensive cast, we’re somewhat confident that Gordon – who may be more physically talented that Little – will be OK.

Sticking with the Little comparison for a moment, it’s interesting to look a little deeper at his numbers from last season. While he caught essentially the same number of passes in the second half of the season (30) as the first half (31), he increased his yardage in the second half (414 yards vs. 295) and scored both his touchdowns in the second half of the season. Clearly, as he got more comfortable with the offense and worked himself back into game shape, his production improved.

It’s not hard to see Gordon following a similar path with his numbers going up in the second half of the season. And Gordon, at almost 6-foot-4 and 224 pounds, and Little, who is 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, should create some physical matchup problems for opposing defensive backs.

After spending his first two drafts working to rebuild the Browns defense, in just a few months Heckert has essentially rebuilt the offense. Unless something drastic happens, Weeden, Richardson and rookie right tackle Mitchell Schwartz will all be starters when the season opens Sept. 9 against Philadelphia. And it’s pretty easy to see Gordon and fellow rookie wide receiver Travis Benjamin seeing plenty of playing time this year. That’s a major turnaround for an offense that ranked 29th last year in total yards (288.8 per game) and 24th in passing yards (193.1 per game).

But will it be enough? And will it all work? That’s the big question.

“We hope so, that’s the idea,” Heckert said. “We made a conscious effort, like we did in the last two drafts where we said we were going to make our defense better. From a stat perspective and in our mind, we think our defense got a lot better in those two years. Now we have kind of loaded up on the offense like you said. They are young, but we think we have gotten a lot better on offense in one draft, now you add Josh in the mix too. We knew this was going to be a process but we think we have gotten a lot better just in the last few months.”

The Browns have the makings of a very good offensive line, a potentially game-changing running back, presumably a legitimate NFL quarterback and, possibly, a wide receiving group that may not be the laughingstock of the NFL. And it is a young group that can grow together and hopefully learn to win together.

There are no guarantees, however, and there is still plenty of work to be done. Selecting Gordon doesn’t turn the Browns into a 10-win team by any stretch, but if he is as good as some people believe he is, it’s another step in the right direction.