It would be great for the Browns if Gordon came back, behaved himself on and off the field and became the player he was in 2013, when he had – by far – the best season by a receiver in club history.

 He:

 *Caught 87 passes, the second-most ever by a Brown and just two a team record.

 *Led the NFL with 1,646 yards and set a club record, breaking the previous mark by a whopping 357 yards.

 *Tied a team record with 14 receptions in a game, against Pittsburgh.

 *Had the two highest totals for receiving yards in a game in Browns history, 261 against Jacksonville and, a week before that, 237 against Pittsburgh, giving him just short of 500 yards – 498, to be exact – in consecutive weeks.

 *Caught nine touchdown passes, the most by a Brown since 2007, and nearly the entire total of the team in 2008  and ’09 (11 each) and ’14 (12).

 Gordon is a freak of nature, having a unique combination of size, strength and speed that makes him a match-up nightmare. Adding someone like that to a young, building and inexperienced receiving corps would give the Browns offense such a boost that it is almost impossible to calculate. But the Browns would sure love to try to find out.

 That’s in a perfect world, though, and Gordon’s world is, of course, far from perfect.

 As such, there’s the rub. He’s off the charts on the field, and, in the opposite direction, off the charts off the field as well. For every positive he brings, he brings a negative of equal proportions.

 So, with all that having been said , then, are you betting on Josh Gordon?

 If you had a few dollars you wanted to wager, would you bet for or against Gordon developing into a big producer for the Browns again, not just for a season, as was the case in 2013, but for an extended period?

 Well, what is it, yea or nay?

 I wish I could vote yea. I really do. The Browns would be a much different – a much better – team immediately. In gauging the Browns, it’s not even close between what they would be with a Gordon like that, as opposed to without him.

 But I can’t. I can’t say yea. Unfortunately, I have to say nay, and that decision is not even close, either. It’s an easy one to make.

 Oh, sure, Gordon could fool me – and a lot of other people – by making a full return, and staying there. And if he’s ever going to do it, then it will be this year because he’ll be with a good, and experienced, coaching staff, the members of which, along with team advisor Jim Brown and even guest volunteer coach Chad Johnson, who is no stranger to behavior issues, will create an environment for him to succeed if indeed he chooses to do the things necessary to work and learn within it.

 But at no time during his football playing career, either at two colleges or in the NFL with the Browns, has Gordon chosen the right path. He has eventually messed up every single time. If we don’t learn from history, then we are doomed to repeat it.

 So unless something changes – drastically – in Gordon’s life, he will end up crashing and burning again.

 I hope I’m wrong – my heart desperately wants me to be wrong – but my head tells me I’ll be right.

 But don’t bet on it.

 At least I wouldn’t.