The Cleveland Browns have been rumored to have Odell Beckham Jr. on the trade block, but nothing ever came of those rumors. Now the team’s general manager, Andrew Berry, is opening up about Beckham’s future.
Browns not looking to move Beckham
Appearing on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football,” Berry made it clear (if it wasn’t already) that the Browns love Beckham as a player. And it appears he’s going to be around for the long haul.
“With all due respect to the question, I think this is actually a topic, at least from our perspective, there really hasn’t been a ton of ambiguity,” Berry said, per NFL.com. “We’ve been clear from the beginning that we view Odell as a fantastic player. We’re a better team with him on the field. We see him as a long-term member of the organization. We really like how he’s acclimated and adjusted with the new staff. So the rumors, that’s not something that we can control, but we’re happy to have him as a part of our organization.”
Remember, the Browns gave up quite a bit of capital to bring Beckham to Cleveland in a trade with the New York Giants. So the franchise clearly had big plans for him to begin with. Now it appears there’s not a lot of thought being given to moving on from those plans.
Room for improvement
In Beckham’s first season with Cleveland, he and the entire Browns offense was a disappointment. A unit that received much fanfare ahead of the 2019 season, the offense never lived up to the hype. Beckham himself had a relatively disappointing campaign catching 74 passes for 1,035 yards and just four touchdowns.
A lot of this had to do with the regression of quarterback Baker Mayfield, who had a serious sophomore slump. The Browns have shored up their offensive line this offseason. They also landed the top tight end in free agency in Austin Hooper. Then, they got a potential steal drafting Donovan Peoples-Jones in the sixth round.
All that to say that Beckham, Mayfield and the Browns have a chance to bounce back in a big way. And if that happens, all this trade talk will likely be nothing more than a blip on the radar as the team looks to contend for years to come.