Jarvis Landry, Josh Gordon confident in offense

Cleveland Browns wide receivers Josh Gordon and Jarvis Landry spoke to the media prior to Tuesday’s mandatory minicamp session and both players sounded confident that the team’s passing offense will be much improved this season.

Gordon, who earlier in the day said he believes that the Browns “have the best receiving corps in the league... just based off of talent alone,” said that the addition of Landry will be a boon to the entire offense. “As a receiving unit, we are a close-knit group if guys. We are all together, normally, and he came in and made that group more tightly knit. He is a natural fit for us,” said Gordon, adding, “His football IQ, his awareness to the game, him knowing where he is supposed to be at—it is just a benefit to not only me, but the entire offense.”

This is Gordon’s first actual appearance in a Browns’ offseason program, having spent the last four under suspension and his first, in 2012, awaiting the Supplemental Draft, when Cleveland selected him with a second-round pick. And the early practices seem already to be good for him; Gordon said,

“I am excited to be out here more than anything. New offense. I have been able to pick it up pretty well, despite learning a new one last year and another new one this year. It is nothing necessarily new. I have been in this situation a few times, learning a new offense, but it has been really fun and really exciting to work with coach [Todd] Haley, though.”

Landry was asked about Gordon’s best-in-the-league comment and concurred—”He ain’t lying,” said Landry. Citing the talents of quarterback Tyrod Taylor, and receivers Gordon, Corey Coleman and Antonio Callaway, Landry said, “I think the capability of what we all can do is endless.”

On Gordon, Landry called him “in a league of his own,” and said that he’s been impressed with the kind of person and teammate Gordon truly is. “[H]aving the chance to get to know him, and hang out and talk to him, it is crazy how the perception of an article or what people say about a person can be misconstrued. Having the opportunity to sit with him and learn from him, he is a stand-up guy,” said Landry.

Gordon was asked about the rookie Callaway, whom the team selected in Round 4 of this year’s draft despite numerous character-related red flags. Gordon, no stranger to off-field issues of his own, noted that the Browns have a great support system in place (“People have gone over and beyond out of their way. Whether I reach out and ask for it or not, people are just checking in,”) and that Callaway, “is in the best place that he could be... It is a real family dynamic here.”

But, of course, a solid receiving corps is nothing without a talented quarterback under center. And though it is early in the process, Landry is already impressed with what he’s seen from Taylor and Baker Mayfield. Among what has stood out? “The accuracy. The leadership, obviously, but the way that these guys take the field every day and have been throwing the football. When the pocket is breaking down, their eyes are still down the field.”