What we do know is that he’s yet to be cleared and he will not play Thursday night against Philadelphia.
“Josh is not playing this Thursday night. No. That is for sure,” Browns head coach Hue Jackson said.
Jackson did not rule out the possibility Gordon could return to practice after Thursday night’s game and see action in the preseason finale at Detroit Aug. 30.
“I would not be opposed to it,” Jackson said.
On Monday Gordon did what he did on Sunday – watched practice on the side while talking with teammates and coaches after some early exercise on the side with trainers.
“I do not think I look at it as a negative from a standpoint of it is still good competition, but you would like to say, ‘Hey, this is the guy.’ I do not know if we are ready to do that yet,” Jones said Monday.
Zane Gonzalez, last year’s kicker, and Solon native Ross Martin haven’t gotten much work in games. Martin has the lone field goal – a 31-yard kick against Buffalo. Gonzalez has kicked 3 PATs, Martin 1. Gonzalez has handled 6 kickoffs with 4 of them going for touchbacks while Martine has had 2, 1 for a touchback.
Jackson held a kicking competition period Monday that saw Gonzalez make all 5 of his kicks from 33, 41, 47, 50 and 53 while Martin went 3-5, hitting the upright on both misses from 33 and 47 while making it from 40, 50 and 53.
As for the punters, veteran Britton Colquitt appears to have the edge, but Justin Vogal is trying to take the job from him.
Through 2 preseason games Vogal has 10 punts with a 43.5 average and 36.0 net, 4 downed inside the 20 with a touchback. Colquitt has 8 boots with a 41.3 average, a 35.5 net, including 3 downed inside the 20 and a touchback.
“From a punting standpoint, it is still one of those scenarios where they are pretty much even from a rep count, which is kind of how you want it to be to get it to a point where you can judge it at least fairly from a standpoint of numbers, but I do not see anyone stepping forward,” Jones said. “I think that is the thing you want to see is someone just take it over in both positions.”
Hyde was given the latter part of Sunday’s practice off to rest a sore shoulder while Ward was out with a sore ankle.
Neither player appeared to be slowed Monday.