NFL Rumors: With Josh Gordon Out For The Season, Patriots Could Be In The Market For Another Wide Receiver

Josh Gordon is out for the year, and the New England Patriots may suddenly have more shopping to do for a wide receiver.

On the day that new acquisition Mohamed Sanu arrived at practice, the Patriots announced that Josh Gordon would be placed on season-ending IR with a knee injury. As Yahoo Sports noted, Gordon had already missed his team’s Monday Night Football win over the New York Jets due to the injury and now will be gone for the remainder of the season after Wednesday’s announcement that he was headed to IR.

Josh Gordon caught 20 passes for 287 yards and a touchdown this season. While some of that production could be made up by Sanu, the Patriots may now need to do more work in rounding out the receiving corps. As ESPN noted before the team announced that Gordon was done for the year, the Patriots already had a banged-up receiver corps with Julian Edelman and Phillip Dorsett both dealing with nagging injuries.

The report of the Sanu trade noted that the acquisition would lessen the pressure on the bottom of the team’s depth chart, but that would not be back on again with Gordon sidelined for the season. Before the trade, undrafted free agents Jakobi Meyers and Gunner Olszewski had taken on larger roles, and first-round draft pick N’Keal Harry is still on injured reserve until after the team’s November 3 game against the Baltimore Ravens.

It’s not clear where the Patriots may look to fill out the receiving corps if Bill Belichick so chooses. The team already gave up a second-round pick to land Sanu, and the list of trade-available wide receivers is growing thinner already with Emmanuel Sanders being shipped to the San Francisco 49ers.

One player who has been regularly connected to the Patriots is Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green, who has yet to play a game this season while returning from injury. Bengals coach Zac Taylor said this week that the team is willing to entertain trade offers for Green, though he has repeatedly said there are no plans to trade him.

“We listen to anything,” Taylor said, via Cincy Jungle.

“It’s not smart to pick up the phones and (not) listen to what’s said. Again, our approach is we have these guys in the locker room, and we have to focus on winning a game with these guys.”

The New England Patriots have not yet said whether they plan to add a wide receiver with Josh Gordon out.