Odell Beckham Sr. Was Right
The whole Odell Beckham Browns saga looks more interesting in hindsight, now doesn’t it?
One thing I think a lot of us forgot when Odell went to the Browns was that he didn’t chose Cleveland. He was shipped there by our doofus GM. Seemed like a smart move at the time to a lot of people. The Giants sucked, Odell was a drama bomb, and the Browns were on the upswing and his buddy Jarvis Landry played there. I feel like we kind of assumed it would work out. But maybe Odell never really wanted that. Maybe one reason he never really gelled in Cleveland was that he got sent there against his will.
When the Browns cut him earlier this year most people immediately pointed the finger at him for being the old Odell. Some of that is unfair. The entire drama started (publicly, at least) when Odell Beckham Sr shared the video of how often Odell was open. Odell shouldn’t really be blamed for what his dad did. If you were a dad, and you felt your kid wasn’t being fairly treated, wouldn’t you do something similar? In fact, I wonder how often other players parents say things on social media like that but they don’t get attention because the player isn’t an Odell-level media magnet.
Eli Apple’s mother is a good example. She’s an absolute psycho online but nobody gives much of a shit about Eli Apple. As an aside, it was amazing to learn that apparently every player in the league despises Eli Apple, because they spent the entire SB dunking on him. This is a guy Landon Collins called a team cancer…when he was still teammates with Apple. Apple must be a real douche.
But after the video incident blew up it also became clear there was friction between Odell and the Browns. Seemed like he was trying to force his way out. The Browns didn’t trade him (this contract needed a re-work first) but cut him, getting nothing in return. It felt like Odell’s career might have been close to over at that point.
Odell signed on with the Rams. The Browns immediately won their next game and the fans rejoiced. The Rams dropped a heavy stinker in the first game featuring Odell, and the haters rejoiced. Odell was the problem in Cleveland’s offense. He would ruin the Rams. Then the rest of the season happened and it turns out no. He was actually instrumental in the Rams super bowl run and fit in fairly well, and he caused no drama. The Browns fell in a well and it became very clear that Odell wasn’t the issue with the offense. Baker is. At the very least, it was clear he and Baker had no chemistry whatsoever and it sounds like they didn’t like each other much.
The rift with Baker has been cited as one of the reasons Odell is a bad teammate, but wherever he goes, Odell always has other teammates backing him up when asked. Several Browns players even congratulated him after the SB win. I’ve never bought the bad teammate narrative that much for that reason. His Giants teammates seemed to love him. I don’t know exactly what happened in Cleveland. We only have a few snippets of info to go on and speculation. It doesn’t appear to have gone well.
Now that he has to rehab another bad injury, I don’t know what will happen with Beckham. Will the Rams keep him after they get Robert Woods back? Woods is better. Will they let him go? He probably won’t be able to play much next season, if at all. He got some redemption this year and I’m happy for him. But goddamn, give his father an award. Without that stupid video getting shared, who knows how all this plays out. Now Beckham gets to go home to his new baby a champion.
Also if no new comics go up next week it’s because I didn’t want to put down Elden Ring
He’s not directly responsible for what his father does, no. But there is a reasonable expectation for him to distance himself from the comments if he doesn’t want to be seen as fully endorsing them, and presumed to be partially responsible for them, as well. He stayed mum, so it’s fair to presume they planned that together. Doesn’t change outcomes, but I don’t think Daddy swooped in and saved the day on his own.
OBJ has said the Giants sent him to Cleveland “to die.” Based on comments like that, yea, he definitely came in with a bad attitude, and probably left the same way. In his defense, though, Baker S&@field is an extremely easy guy to hate. Not Johnny Manziel tier, but not far behind. I’d take OBJ over that dbag any day.
I’ll LOUDLY give OBJ credit now. Once a Ram, his behavior changed. He seemed to have matured. Rams-OBJ wasn’t team cancer, wasn’t flinging his arms up in disgust every play and throwing tantrums on the sidelines like Li’l Tommy Brady. I give him props for getting there, and would have liked to see if he could maintain it.
The fragile body, sadly, has not changed. He has torn or broken just about everything on his lower limbs at this point, and he’ll likely never be the guy he was in NY again. He’ll probably miss next season, and will need a #1 threat to work off of, whether he ends up staying in LA or going elsewhere. For his sake, I hope he is able to pick up where he left off.
OBJ’s time in Cleveland can be best described as bad luck on top of a bad fit. He just didn’t fit that offense at all and wasn’t helped by the fact that he kept suffering injury after injury that stunted any chance of he and Baker forming some sort of chemistry. I never really got the vibe that he didn’t want to be there. He may not have been thrilled but it seemed like he more or less embraced the move and tried to make it work. It just didn’t pan out for either side. Ultimately due to his past drama and his dad fueling the flames (on top of Cleveland ultimately winning a playoff game without him), it was very easy for the Browns and their fans to make him the scapegoat for their struggles this past year, even if it was evident that the problem actually lie with Baker playing through multiple injuries that greatly limited his already meh abilities as a passer.
The Rams turned out to be a far more ideal situation for him and it showed. He didn’t have to be the guy, but still had the talent to take full advantage of the better matchups he was getting. I’ll admit that I quite enjoyed watching him thrive while Cleveland completely fell apart after how they treated him, though a part of me is kind of sick that he came extremely close to signing with the Pats. Oh well.
I feel like all sides of this were kind of overblown. I don’t think he was really a cancer in Cleveland or anything, and I don’t think he made a huge impact on the Rams either. He only had 38.1 yards per game in a pass-happy offense. Catch percentage was only 56.3% as well.
He wasn’t very impactful during the regular season save for a couple of solid performances but he was a decent redzone threat and he showed up big time in the playoffs. Dude averaged 72 yards per game with 2 TDs and had an 80% catch percentage, including a 9 catch, 113 yard performance against a very stout San Francisco defense in the NFC Championship. Plus he was on his way to another huge performance in the Super Bowl before tearing his ACL. He was very impactful in their playoff run.
OBJ is an amazing WR3 and will excel behind a true super star like Kupp.
Plus Eli Apple’s an Eagles fan so there’s another reason to hate the guy.
After following Eli Apple on Twitter it’s easy to see why people don’t like the guy. He focuses on the wrong things.
I feel it’s unfair to call him toast because he got burnt by Kupp. Kupp had the best receiving season in history, and that last TD is tough to cover anyway. It’s near impossible with a great QB/WR duo.
But all that being said he seems like the type of guy who is just good enough when a team is winning, but amplifies problems during low points.
I hope the Bengals move on from him.
Bates III was the key to the secondary anyway.
I get not thinking OBJ was the problem, but I also feel like it’s conveniently glossed over that baker played hurt much of the year, as evidenced by him pretty immediately getting surgery after their final game of the season. The brief window that we’ve seen of both “Baker healthy” and “No obj on the field” iirc the stats showed him as like top 10 or even top 5 in QBR during that stretch, which i believe was the back half of last season. It feels like it’s a pretty convenient excuse for fans to just dump on baker when he had a very good reason for not playing well: he probably shouldn’t have been playing at all.
I’m overall still not too down on Baker overall and I don’t think he’s as bad for the injury reasons you stated, but he’s gotta put together a good season this year if he wants to prove he’s the guy, and he still clearly had no chemistry with OBJ
The injury situation is certainly something to consider, but for me, ultimately… if he’s healthy enough to be on the field, he needs to perform without excuses. If he was THAT hurt, he should have been shut down. Risking his health and lowering his team’s chances of winning on account of his limitations is inexcusable. I don’t watch Browns games, but I trust Shannon Sharpe, and he said a lot of his problems were decision-making. If that’s true, then I dunno if his poor performance can just be cleanly written off as a result of the injury.
I think sometimes, being physically limited makes good decisions seem like bad decisions. Windows open and close in the NFL in a split second’s time, and what would normally be an open window to you becomes a potential pick if you can’t perform as you normally can due to injury. That said, I 100% agree that Baker should not have been on the field if this was the issue.
The fans want the beef between Odell and Cleveland to be a lot bigger than it really is.
And as a Browns fan, I hate what it’s become. Yeah, he wasn’t happy here, he was playing with a hurt shoulder, and Baker just stopped being able to throw a lot of his routes after his two shoulder separations. No kidding he wouldn’t be happy in Cleveland.
I’m not mad at him, just at everyone thinking I am.
I’d like to see you do some comics about the Giants’ “Wilderness Era” one day as there are plenty of materials to work with.
This is the problem with sports media. They always want to draw sides and pick winners on things that don’t require that.
Giants sent Odell to “die” in Cleveland as punishment for his diva ways. And lets not sugar coat the diva part. Now luckily, Odell finally got cut and made it to the Rams. But guess what, 3 things are being skipped over in this ludicrous “who’s right” fight.
First: Odell is still a diva. That hasn’t changed. Just because Odell could contain it for a late run and playoffs with the Rams doesn’t mean all the sudden that the 7+ years of diva is going away. It will pop up again, likely next year in LA. Which leads to the 2nd point.
Second: Odell lucked out that Robert Woods got injured the day he signed. If that doesn’t happen, Odell is at best the 3rd option. Woods will return strong and retake his roll at WR#2. Beckham will have to slide into the 3rd spot, which is good news for him if he wants to enjoy winning and less money. Which leads to my third point.
THird: The Rams actual prefer running the ball, they just couldn’t do it well this year with the injuries to the running game. They will likely return to running the ball more. Which means Odell will get slid to the #3 WR spot next year, on a team that won’t target him as much while running the ball more. What do you think the chances are that Diva Odell shows back up?
And guess what, none of this means anyone was right or wrong in that whole scenario. Odell wasn’t happy in Cleveland, him and Baker never developed a connection, and the relationship soured. There is no right or wrong in that (IMHO)
The only stat OBJ improved on in LA was the number of touchdowns, which can be attributed to better QB play. His catch rate, total yards, and YAC were all very similar to what they were in Cleveland.
I still don’t buy the narrative that he never wanted to be in Cleveland, and I do believe he is a good teammate, but if he really did tell Von Miller not to come to Cleveland in the preseason then that isn’t forgivable. It’s one thing to be unhappy in your own situation, but it’s something very different to actively sabotage the team’s ability to improve the roster.