BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns’ roster was hit with some midseason math this week as the team regained wide receiver Josh Gordon from suspension and cut problematic running back Ben Tate.

After releasing Tate on Tuesday, the Browns were left to go forward with rookies Terrance West and Isaiah Crowell as the focus of their run offense.

“The young backs — and I’ve talked of this before about West — is that there’s an explosiveness there with the young backs, just a little bit more pop,” coach Mike Pettine said. “We wanted to see those guys out there.

“Sometimes it’s not a matter of a negative against a guy. Sometimes it’s more of a positive with the other ones, but we take everything into account when we discuss the running backs.”

Pettine said off-the-field issues contributed to Tate’s release, but it was primarily a football decision.

In other roster action, wide receiver Taylor Gabriel figures to be the one to lose playing time with the return of Josh Gordon from a 10-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Taylor is third in receptions with 29 and second with 527 receiving yards.

Gordon began practicing on Wednesday. He last played in a game on Aug. 23.

“Let’s not put this on Josh — this huge responsibility that there are six games for him to go out and catch for 1,500 yards,” quarterback Brian Hoyer said. “It’s not realistic. Our coaches are doing a good job of getting him ready to go. I’m just excited to get out on the field with him on Wednesday, and we’ll see how everything plays out.”

Gordon led the NFL with 1,646 receiving yards in 2013.

–The Browns originally had the sixth pick of the 2011 draft. Former general manager Tom Heckert traded the pick to the Falcons, the team Cleveland plays this week. Atlanta took wide receiver Julio Jones.

In exchange, the Browns got the 27th overall pick in 2011, the 59th pick and the 124th pick that year plus the Falcons’ first-round and fourth-round picks in 2012.

All the Browns have to show for the trade is defensive end Phil Taylor, who was acquired after Cleveland traded up from 27 to 21 in in 2011. They used the 59th pick on wide receiver Greg Little and the 124th pick on fullback Owen Marecic. They used the 2012 first-round pick on quarterback Brandon Weeden and used the fourth-round pick to sweeten the deal when they traded up one spot from fourth to third to draft running back Trent Richardson. None of those players is with the Browns.