clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Santonio Holmes a potential free agent option for the Cleveland Browns

While there is no confirmation of the team's interest, a Sports Illustrated writer makes an intriguing argument behind replacing their potentially suspended receiver with another one who's been down that path.

Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY

Is it irony that a player leaves the division because of, among other things, a looming suspension for a failed drug test, only to see that player return to the division a few years later because...a player failed a drug test?

Ironic or not, it seems really funny.

We can always thank the Cleveland Browns for such things, who are possibly in the market for a free agent wide receiver in the event Josh Gordon is suspended this season. He allegedly failed a drug test, and he already had two marks against him in that regard (one last season as a member of the Browns team, and the other, stemming from college, which can count the same as a failed test in the NFL).

Oddly, Holmes has two marks against him as well, the last coming from the last offseason he was with the Steelers, after the 2009 season. He was given the suspension just as the Steelers traded him to the Jets for a fifth round pick in the 2010 draft. After another trade, the Steelers ended up with a sixth round pick, which they used on Antonio Brown.

Brown and Gordon were both All Pro receivers in 2013 while Holmes was injured for the vast majority of the season.

It isn't a news report, just an opinion piece on an option for the Browns in the event Gordon is suspended. It makes for an interesting discussion piece, especially considering the Steelers face the Browns in Week 1 of the 2014 season.