And Just Like That ... POOF. Josh Gordon is Done for the Year

What did I say not an hour ago?

Remember how just a couple of weeks ago, when Gordon hobbled off the field after making that tackle after a fumble? And how the Pats had to spend the entire second half of a game with an offensive skill position group of Julian Edelman, Jakobi Meyers, Gunner Olszewski, Ryan Izzo, James White and the running backs? And how even the most faithful, devout, uber-confident person among us was looking at a future of that and wondering if maybe they still had Antonio Brown’s contact info? That was two weeks ago. And here’s your wide receiver depth chart now:

–Edelman
–Gordon
–Sanu
–Phillip Dorsett with a healthy hamstring
–Meyers
–N’Keal Harry (eligible to play Week 9)
–Olszewski

What a year this position has had already, and we’re not even halfway through. They’ve gone from paper thin to loaded to rolling paper thin to pretty damned good, just since midsummer. And right now, at this particular moment, they seem at least as good as most of your recent Super Bowl winners. And that’s all any of us should care about. — Me, October 23, 2019, 4:30 PM

I’m a man of science who doesn’t believe in jinxes. But even my rational mind was worried as I wrote this that I was tempting fate.

Fate wins.

Now I don’t know how to evaluate this receiving corps. It’s still OK. Ish. Maybe it’ll still be championship caliber if N’Keal Harry is what the college scouting department thought he was and can come back at full strength.  But they just got decidedly less deep without their top big body/deep threat. Thank Belichick for the Sanu trade now or else this would be a Chernobyl-level disaster.

What I don’t get, and I suppose none of us will ever know, is how Gordon can look so good on the practice field in warm ups and be out for the year in the span of a couple of hours. No one ever said it would be fair I guess. Here’s one last look at the play that finished him:

And a year that has never had a dull moment sees yet another cataclysmic turn. At this point a dull moment would be welcome relief. I’m exhausted. And can’t imagine what it’s like to for the guys in the locker room. “Bourbon for My Soul”? If you’ll give me the rest of the night to myself, I’m going to need bourbon for my liver. ALL the bourbon.

UPDATE: He’s probably done in New England for life:

Um, it’s been fun? I guess? What a short, strange trip it’s been.