Josh Gordon has not had an outstanding offseason. (Getty Images)

Cleveland Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden recently talked up perhaps his most intriguing target, second-year receiver Josh Gordon, who caught 50 passes for 805 yards and five touchdowns in his rookie season after the Browns took in the 2012 supplemental draft.

"He's a guy that has the ability to be a top-three receiver in this league," Weeden said after his team's practice on Thursday. "He has big-play capabilities. He can run by guys. He can do so many different things. He's got a ton of ability. I'm glad he's on our side."

Weeden will have to wait a bit longer than he would have liked to find out just how good Gordon can be. As first reported by ESPN Cleveland's Tony Grossi, Gordon has been suspended for the first two games of the 2013 season, and fined the first four games, for a violation of the NFL's substance-abuse policy. Grossi also reported that the suspension would have been longer but for the fact that collegiate violations of substance abuse policies can't be factored in to NFL suspensions.

In a statement, Gordon said that he had strep throat in February, and took a cough medicine that he did not know contained codeine, which is prohibited per NFL rules.

"Policy terms are strict about unintentional ingestion, but NFL has not imposed the maximum punishment in light of the facts of my case," Gordon said. "Therefore, I have chosen to be immediately accountable for the situation. I sincerely apologize for the impact on my team, coaches, & Browns fans. I look forward to working hard in training camp and pre-season and contributing immediately when I return in week three."

Gordon could have been suspended four games for the violation.

“Obviously we are all disappointed in this news," Browns head coach Rob Chudzinski said in his own statement. "In our short time with Josh, he has done everything that we’ve asked him to do and he has exhibited substantial improvement. We believe that he will continue to work diligently through training camp and the preseason. I am confident that others will step up in his absence.”

Gordon was suspended from the Baylor squad before the 2011 season after a marijuana arrest and a history failed drug tests, which denied him the opportunity to catch a bunch of passes from Robert Griffin III in RG3's defining college season. He transferred to Utah, sat out the season, and was taken by the Browns in July, 2012, in a move that cost Cleveland its 2013 second-round pick.

"Despite everything I've been through, despite being a kid with a spotty background, the Cleveland Browns stuck their neck out and risked taking me and put their faith and belief in me, and I won't let them down," Gordon said in a phone interview with the Cleveland media on the day the Browns took a chance on him. "I'm grateful, and I know I can't go back to being the person I used to be."

It's not known what substance got Gordon in trouble, but this isn't a good sign. At the 2012 Gatorade Sports Star of the Year banquet, Griffin was asked about Gordon's future by myself and Y! Sports colleague Mike Silver, and his response seemed uncertain at best.

"Wait ... WHO am I throwing to again?" (AP)

If you've been out to New York Jets OTAs and it feels like you need a program to name the receivers ... well, don't worry. You're not alone. His main targets out with all kinds of injuries, alleged starting quarterback Mark Sanchez has been playing catch-up with the identities of the guys he's throwing to.

“We’ve come up with some funny nicknames for some of them, because you don’t even know their names and they’re just in there,” Sanchez told Brian Costello of the New York Post on Thursday.

As Lou Brown might have said in "Major League II," Santonio Holmes has a foot thing, Stephen Hill has a hamstring thing, Jeremy Kerley has a heel thing, and Clyde Gates also has a hamstring thing. That leaves some new guys to pick up the slack.

They've got Ben Obomanu, a former Seattle Seahawk who was signed last week. There's Jordan White, who has two games of NFL experience. He and Obomanu are the only receivers going through practice who do, and at one point during the team's recent practices, there were three receivers on the first team -- Joseph Collins, Zach Rogers and Thomas Mayo -- with no real NFL experience at all.

Sadly for the Jets, their current receiver injury situation mirrors what happened in the 2012 season. Holmes was lost for the season with a Week 4 foot injury, and Hill couldn't stay healthy in his rookie year. Kerley led the team with 56 catches and 827 yards, while Hill and tight end Jeff Cumberland tied for the team lead with three receiving touchdowns.

That doesn't excuse Sanchez's frequently sub-par play in 2012, but it certainly helps to explain it.

Belichick and Tebow expressing their true feelings in Jan. 2012. (Getty Images)

Things have been relatively quiet on the Tim Tebow front of late, and you know we can't have that for too long. Neither could ESPN Boston, who recently got in touch with New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick to ask him about a recent story from Y! Sports' Mike Silver.

In that story, about the fact that many NFL teams are shying away from signing the quarterback-at-large because of the media goofiness he would bring wherever he goes, Silver heard from a source with the Pats who told him that Belichick won't be joining the Tebow Fan Club (if there still is one):

While there's plenty of media chatter that Tebow could land with the Patriots (whose offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, was the man behind the Broncos' decision to draft Tebow in the first round), my organizational sources tell me that's very unlikely to happen, with one going so far as to say that Coach Bill Belichick "hates" Tebow as a player. As for the prospect of employing Tebow as a change-of-pace quarterback — and asking Tom Brady to come off the field in those situations — the source says, "No chance. Plus they wouldn't like the circus that comes with it."

On Wednesday, Belichick took that report to task.

"I wouldn't get into the probability of us pursuing any free agent," he told ESPN Boston's Field Yates. "Every single player has strengths and weaknesses but regardless of that, for anyone to have represented that is the way I feel about Tim Tebow is completely untrue, baseless and irresponsible. It is unfortunate that something so inaccurate was reported."

Well, that's interesting. Like most coaches, Belichick understands the power of the media to bend and twist things (yes, we're including ourselves here), especially where a popular subject is concerned. But Mike is generally pretty right on with his reporting, to the point where he tends to annoy some NFL higher-ups with his accuracy. And he seems to have done so in this case.

Alex Smith lets it fly during Chiefs practice. (AP)

To most, new Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith is seen as a placeholder player -- a bridge guy who can keep the passing offense relatively mistake-free while head coach Andy Reid and new general manager John Dorsey fill in the personnel holes in a roster that produced a 2-14 season in 2012 despite several Pro Bowl-level performances on defense. That's not a knock on Smith; simply a recognition of his physical limitations. The first overall pick in 2005 floundered around in San Francisco until Jim Harbaugh became the 49ers' coach in 2011 and directed Smith to maximize his attributes and eliminate his liabilities.

Basically, Harbaugh wanted Smith to throw away every pass that wasn't a sure thing, and it worked. The 49ers went 13-3 in 2011, and Smith had the NFL's best passer rating when he suffered a concussion against the St. Louis Rams on November 11. Harbaugh replaced Smith with second-year quarterback Colin Kaepernick and saw a serious uptick in his offense with Kaepernick's rushing ability and consistent deep-ball acumen. Smith was the odd man out, so the Chiefs got him in a February trade.

Now, with Reid running his offense, one would assume that Smith will once again be directed to keep it vanilla and mistake-free. But during the team's recent string of practices, Reid said that he wants Smith to test the waters and see what he can get away with downfield.

“If it ends up being an interception, OK, it’s an interception," Reid told the Kansas City Star. You learn from it. These are smart guys so they learn from it and once they get into the season, they’re not experimenting with it on game day and they know what they can get away with and know what they can’t.

“It’s a new offense. I would tell any quarterback that comes in new that that’s what you need to do. I’ve told them all that. Go ahead and take your shots and see what you can get away with, within reason. But if it’s a close throw, there are going to be a few of those in the National Football League on game day, so you need to know what you can get away with on each route.”

Reid is frequently thought to be a West Coast Offense-or-bust guy from his days with LaVell Edwards at BYU and Mike Holmgren in Green Bay and on his own in Philadelphia, and he does subscribe to many of those theories. But while the WCO is generally marked by a higher percentage of short and intermediate managed timing throws, Reid has liked his quarterbacks to sling it deep -- especially in the last few seasons, when he had DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin to test pass defenses at a higher level with the Eagles. In that regard, Smith has some work to do.

Christian Ponder should be careful who he listens to. (Getty Images)

In his second NFL season, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder finished 21st in Football Outsiders' opponent-adjusted metrics among qualifying quarterbacks and threw 18 touchdown passes to 12 interceptions. But more will be expected of Ponder if the VIkings are to get further in the playoffs than they did in 2012, when Ponder suffered an elbow injury in the regular-season finale, and the Vikings lost to the Green Bay Packers, 24-10, in the wild-card round. The Vikings have taken Adrian Peterson's greatness about as far as any team can take the efforts of any running back. And in the interest of moving Ponder along, head coach Leslie Frazier has taken an unusual step in bringing former NFL quarterback Jeff George in as a "guest coach" during this week's OTAs.

"We told our players just to be able to pick his brain, our quarterbacks, and talk with him about some of the things he saw as a young quarterback and what he saw as a veteran and just his maturation over the course of his career," Frazier told 1500ESPN.com's Tom Pelissero. "He was a very good player for a long time, high draft pick, and I think he can really help our players with some of his background and his knowledge as well."

Ah, but there's more to the story, in George's case.

Jeff George in 1991, rocking the deadly mullet/'stache combo. (Getty Images)Before Ryan Leaf and JaMarcus Russell hit the NFL and went "splat," George may have been the biggest draft bust in the league's history. Selected with the first overall pick in the 1990 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts. George had a decent rookie season, but things soon fell apart. He held out, argued with head coaches Ron Meyer and Ted Marchibroda, and eventually demanded a trade. The Colts acquiesced after the 1993 season, trading him to the Atlanta Falcons. George threw 41 touchdowns and 46 interceptions in his four-year Colts career. He was a bit better in Atlanta, but he's best known for a sideline tirade in the 1996 season involving head coach June Jones. He moved on to Oakland for the 1997 season and impressed with a 29-touchdown season on a 4-12 squad, but his time in the league was soon to be over.

George had a nice little ride for the Vikings in 1999, replacing Randall Cunningham and starting 10 games in a totally stacked offense, but he signed a large contract with the Washington Redskins in 2000 after Vikings head coach Dennis Green told him to "shop around." He never played in a regular-season game after the 2001 season, though he made noises about comebacks through the next decade.

“I’ve been trying to figure out how to get back in, and it just amazes me that I’m not on somebody’s roster,” George told Y! Sports' Michael Silver in 2009. “I’ve been throwing two or three times a week, and every time I go out there to throw, I can’t believe I’m not a backup somewhere. I know it’s a young man’s game, but you can’t tell me I’m not better than some of the quarterbacks that are out there. I look at teams like Minnesota or Chicago, and I want to scream at the people in charge, ‘What are you thinking?’”

What teams may have been thinking was that whatever George had left, it wasn't worth the trouble.

The Houston Texans moved their OTA schedule around on Wednesday, and they did it for all the right reasons. Head coach Gary Kubiak switched the team's start of practice from 11:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. so that everyone could attend the memorial service held for four Houston firefighters -- Captain Matthew Renaud, Engineer-Operator Robert Bebee and firefighters Robert Garner and Anne Sullivan -- who lost their lives in a May 31 motel fire in southwest Houston. The memorial service, held at Reliant Stadium, was attended by all Texans players, coaches, and football personnel.

“Our community means so much to us as an organization; that goes without saying,” Kubiak told the team's official website. “These players, they come from all over the country and they become a Houstonian. We put a team together and get very close to our city, and it's something that we talked about as a team with the players the other day. We get so much support from them, and it’s time for us to show our support for these families and the people that serve our city on a daily basis.”

Texans players pass over the memorial service honoring four Houston firefighters at Reliant Stadium (Houston Chronicle/AP)

The Texans team stayed for the whole three-hour ceremony, which included remarks from Texas governor Rick Perry, Houston mayor Annise Parker, and Houston fire chief Terry Garrison. The American flag and the IAFF Medal of Honor were presented to the families of the four who lost their lives, and a procession of fire engines moved slowly up Kirby Drive.

13 other firefighters were hospitalized when a restaurant connected to the Southwest inn caught fire, and Renaud, Bebee, Garner, and Sullivan were among the first responders. They died when the roof of the restaurant collapsed.

“It’s something that as players, we talked with the coaches and just tried to work it out when we found out it was going to take place in our building," Texans quarterback Matt Schaub said. "It’s important for us, being members of this community, to be a part of that community, and when something like this happens, we all rally around each other as citizens. I think it says a lot about what’s important to us as a football team and an organization.”

Many of the wounded firefighters attended the memorial, and hundreds of their colleagues walked more than a mile in a dawn procession.

(Getty Images)

The Denver Broncos family suffered a major blow when the parents of running backs coach Eric Studesville, 67-year-old Alfonso Studeville and 68-year-old Janet Studesville, died in a motorcycle accident on Tuesday afternoon. According to a report from ConnectAmarillo.com, the Studesvilles were driving a motorcycle on Highway 54 in Texas when a truck towing a grain trailer moved into the wrong lane (eastbound to westbound) and struck the motorcycle head on. The Studesvilles were thrown from their motorcycle into a ditch.

According to the report, Anthony Dewayne Buck, the driver of the truck, was uninjured. The Texas Department of Safety is investigating the accident.

The Broncos issued the following statement on Wednesday morning.

“Our most heartfelt condolences go to Eric Studesville and his entire family following the tragic loss of his parents, Al and Jan Studesville. We were devastated to learn of their passing today. Our thoughts and prayers are with Eric and his family, and our organization will support them however possible during this difficult time.”

The Broncos cancelled their scheduled press conferences on Wednesday with defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio and offensive coordinator Adam Gase.

Studesville is in his fourth season coaching the Broncos' running backs. He was also the team's interim head coach for the last three games of the 2010 season after former head coach Josh McDaniels was fired. Studesville's father was a frequent visitor to practice when his son had that position, and he talked about the role his parents played in his success in a Dec., 2010 article for the Denver Post.

Tyrann Mathieu could find multiple=

After a brief hiatus, our good buddy Greg Cosell of NFL Films, ESPN's NFL Matchup, and Shutdown Corner is back to talk a little football. And with a little more than a month passed since the draft, we thought it would be interesting to review that selection process by division, now that teams have given a bit of insight into how their new players will be used. We'll start with the NFC West, go through the divisions, and wind up just in time for training camp.

The Shutdown Corner NFC West draft review podcast with Greg Cosell

A few thoughts from Mr. Cosell:

On how new Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles might use defensive back Tyrann Mathieu: "A thought came to mind when you talked about how often the nickel cornerback will play. I wonder, in the NFC West, if it might be fewer snaps than for other teams [in other divisions]. San Francisco plays with two and three tight ends fairly often, Seattle has multiple tight ends and can use them, and the Rams signed Jared Cook. And, they still have Lance Kendricks. We don't know the answer to this, but he might play fewer snaps as the nickel corner. As far as the safety situation, I think they feel that he's a quick kid who's around the ball a lot, and they're trying to get him on the field. He's not going to start at corner. So, if he's a nickel corner, that's great. How many snaps? We don't know that, but if they want him on the field for 90 percent plus, he'll have to play safety."

On where Seahawks running back Christine Michael could fit into Seattle's plans: "He's a really intriguing running back. He's got size, lateral quickness, and natural power. He's got acceleration. He's got really explosive feet for a 220-poound back. I thought he was really decisive downhill. I liked him a lot. It's a pick where I'm sure they'll say that they had him highly rated and they had to take him, and I can understand that. But what's really fascinating about it is that here's a league in which running backs are not theoretically valued, and here's a guy who hardly carried the ball [in 2012], and he gets taken with the 62nd pick in the draft."

The Shutdown Corner NFC West draft review podcast with Greg Cosell