Josh Gordon cleared to return to all football activities

The news just keeps on getting better for the Cleveland Browns as the NFL announced on Saturday that wide receiver Josh Gordon has been cleared to resume all football activities.

The news was Tweeted out by the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, among others, and cited NFL PR spokesman Brian McCarthy:

Gordon has been with the Browns for the past week, but was only allowed to attend meetings and train. Head coach Hue Jackson announced on Friday that Gordon would start participating in walkthroughs at practice starting today, but the latest news from the NFL means that the league will not hold Gordon or the Browns back from what they deem best.

UPDATED: Gordon did not practice on Saturday due to a tweaked hamstring:

Gordon will also likely not play in the final preseason game, which takes place Thursday night against the Detroit Lions:

Jackson seemed a bit unsure about what would come next for Gordon on Friday, when he talked about needing to “see where (Gordon) is” before making a decision, according to clevelandbrowns.com:

“Josh Gordon will be at practice every day, but you are asking if he will be practicing. Probably – again he is into the second phase of where I want him to be – he will definitely be involved in walk-throughs now, out there and be involved. How much he does will be in proportion of what I see and where he is.”

It seems extremely unlikely that, barring an injury or another personal setback, that Jackson would limit Gordon is any way. The regular season kicks off in two weeks, after all, and Gordon needs as much practice and playing time as possible to have a chance to “earn his stripes” before the league-mandated cutdown day on September 1.

That is a topic for another day, however, as the key takeaway here is that Gordon is back and presumably ready to help a Browns offense that has stalled out a bit in the last two preseason games.