Flash Gordon

Ken Kelly

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The NFL holds a supplemental draft each season and it largely goes ignored in many fantasy circles. However, some stars have come from this draft including Bernie Kosar and Cris Carter. Just last year, the Raiders took a chance on former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor in the supplemental draft, forfeiting a third round pick in this year’s NFL Draft in the process.

This year, the big name being talked about is former Baylor receiver Josh Gordon. We’ve already mentioned him once in the last week when we posted our Weekly Impact Events, but felt he was worth even more attention now as we attempt to stay ahead of the curve in giving you information. He’s a great athlete who measures in at 6’4″ and 225 pounds and is said to have 4.4 speed. He’s even been mentioned as a greater prospect than his former Baylor teammate and now current Tennessee Titan, Kendall Wright – that fact alone should get your attention.

Before you run to your league’s waiver wire or start burning future picks in your league’s own supplemental draft for the rights to Gordon, there are some things you need to know about him.

First, he has some baggage. After posting a nice Sophomore campaign that featured 42 catches for 714 yards and seven touchdowns as the second leading receiver for the Bears, he was suspended indefinitely for repeated violations of team rules. The highlight had to be a marijuana possession arrest where Gordon was found in the passenger seat of a vehicle next to teammate Willie Jefferson who had passed out in a Taco Bell drive through [insert your own joke here].

Gordon subsequently quit the program at Baylor and transferred to Utah, where he was looking to get a fresh start. After sitting out the 2011 season and participating only on the practice squad due to his post-transfer ineligibility, he’ll never actually play for the Utes as he’s put his name in for the supplemental draft apparently due to some financial difficulties for his family.

The evaluation of Gordon is all across the board at the moment. Russ Lande, the draft analyst for the Sporting News is on record as giving Gordon a high second round grade based on a review of his game film. The problem is that game film is a good two years old at the moment. News is also leaking out that more than a few teams are prepared to put in a claim in the third round on Gordon. When you consider that DeVier Posey, TJ Graham, Mohamed Sanu, Reuben Randle and Ryan Broyles were all taken around the late second to early third round, it’s time to take some notice and pay close attention to Thursday’s supplemental draft and especially to Gordon’s pro day, which is reportedly set for tomorrow.

Receivers with the size and speed combination of Gordon are coveted in both reality and fantasy as they can be true outside threats and possibly legitimate stars. The other big question to be answered is just which team is going to be the one to make a claim on him. If it’s a team loaded with receiving talent, the allure of Gordon is going to decrease quite a bit. If it’s a team with a history of developing young players (preferably with some good veteran mentors on board), his value could go up even more. As it stands, Gordon could be worth as much as a future third round pick in a rookie draft, pending his final destination.

On a side note, this is a really good time for league owners to review their league’s rules.  If you have no supplemental draft in your league and Gordon is available on your league’s waiver wire, by all means, use on of your last two roster developmental roster spots on him or drop your kicker for the moment and pick him up just to see what happens.

If you’re a league commissioner, I’d highly recommend you develop rules to have your own supplemental draft. In essence, each team just places a secret bid on any player taken in the draft and the highest bid wins. In other words, if someone places a second round bid on Gordon and nobody else bids on him, that team will lose their 2013 second round pick and be awarded the rights to him. Make sure you explain any tie-breakers as well for multiple teams who place bids for the same round (typically the team with the worst record from the previous year would win).

Keep it here to DLF and we’ll give you our opinions on Gordon post-draft as well. He was surely worth talking about today, just in case you can get a jump start on adding him to your roster if your league is a little behind the times on supplemental draft rules.

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ken kelly