Hue: Josh Gordon's departure was a "communication problem"

Josh Gordon's return to the field on Sunday after another turbulent offensive season was welcomed by Browns supporters and his league fans. But Gordon was not supposed to see the action of the game so early.

In Cleveland's first offensive game with the Steelers, Gordon was on the field, left-leaning as the sole receiver of Browns' 13-man squad. That made Gordon a starter, which the Browns coach, Hue Jackson, wanted to avoid. Since Gordon's return to training camp, Jackson had insisted that the receiver not start week 1.

The coach told reporters after the match that Gordon's departure was a "mistake" and attributed the receiver's presence on Cleveland's first hitch to a "communication problem" with the first-year offensive coordinator, Todd Haley.

"The group of staff made it out for the first time," said Jackson Sunday night, by The Plain Dealer. "I saw it as you did.This is not what I wanted, but we will get there too."

Gordon was surprised to be on the ground saying, "Yeah, when I was told, at first I did not plan, but I only played one game and I came back, I came back to the game plan. "

Gordon was not on the ground for the remainder of Cleveland's first exit and his second march, yielding cliches to Jarvis Landry, Antonio Callaway and Rashard Higgins.

Cleveland had no desire not to play Gordon. At the end of the game, he played 69 of 89 offensive strikes, or 78%, the second highest among the Browns receivers behind Landry. Gordon has only captured three targets in these 69 shots and a reception, a 17-yard scoring at the tip of the wheels.

On Monday, Jackson tried to move away from the problem.

"The game is over now, so to talk about it, what will he do?" Nothing, "Jackson told reporters. "So I dealt with it, we worked on it, it's over, we move on."

Quote this as another example of growing pain between Jackson and Haley, who are part of the same staff for the first time in their careers.