DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum The OBJ-Baker Connection: Linchpin to the season?

Is this just more OBJ being OBJ? Honest question.

Wasn't he regarded by his peers as the model teammate in NYG, even during his kicker net shenanigans?

exactly.

If only Baker would just throw the ball to his open #1 WR none of this would be happening.

OnWe all know your viewpoint on baker.

What's your view on obj? Are you saying he's still an elite receiver and open most plays? You believe that he's going to go somewhere else and be a superstar again?

Clearly you blame baker for literally everything... That's a given, what about obj?

I think OBJ is not an elite WR anymore but still is very good. I"D still like him to be a Brown and be utilized the best way he can be. I, as a Browns fan for over 50 years, want us to win. That's what the goal is, to win.

Let's see what Hue can do with good players!

While we're at it let's bring back Lord Dorsey. I mean, the Lions are doing pretty well right now!

I'm lost.. I just don't understand this mess.. OBJ should have been a great addition. I thought he was at first.. I suppose I wasn't alone.. Was it the injuries? He is simply not the WR he once was.

And his father sticking his nose into things... Stupid,... Just stupid.

I didn't see the 11 minute video he posted somewhere.. I guess it shows that Baker wasn't targeting OBJ. Or at least not enough.. I don't know if that's true or just sour grapes..

But the one thing I've enjoyed during the Stefanski era is the lack of DRAMA... A couple of games don't go how they were drawn up and BAM, we have DRAMA.

Well, nothing can be done about it now.. I guess we could cut OBJ,, heavy costs we'd need to absorb. Damage is done, so do you put him back on the field and feed the beast?

hard to say what it all means

How can someone else’s actions (even if they are related to you) cost you your job?
There has to be more to this story….

I agree with this take. Odell, IMO, is immature in some ways. He is a guy who DOES read all the headlines and tweets, and always plays the victim. I was one who claimed he was getting open, and I saw him do it Sunday. But one thing I noticed in the video his dad posted was that at times when he was getting open, Baker was moving out of trouble or had already located someone else open, after looking his way while still covered. It is a weird situation, and I have a feeling that maybe OBJ was freelancing a bit to get open. This can be a problem for an offense built on specific timing in patterns. It's not a bad thing, IMO, but unless your QB can adjust, it doesn't help.

Odell must of did something, Stephanski doesn't seem like a guy who would jump the gun on something. It will come out eventually, especially since Osell loves to whine to the media.

Timing means everything sometimes. That video being posted right after the trade deadline really means Beckham is probably going to sit the year now. I am pretty sure that OBJ isnt away from the team because of his Dad, there is more to the story. We get the public story, but I am willing to bet there is another story quite different.

Everyone has been repeating the mantra that he's open.... but, nobody has been asking if he's where he's supposed to be.


I don't know the answer to that, but it's absolutely a factor that needs to be considered.... though, everyone can rest assured that ALL of this has been handled in the film rooms with the offense repeatedly. There's NO WAY the coaches let it ride that Baker is deliberately skipping a good read to not throw it to OBJ, nor is it possible that OBJ wouldn't have been told he ran the wrong route for a given coverage.
and that stat saying that 47% uncatchable balls.... that HAS to be complete garbage. Hell, I want them to actually back that one up. Show your work.... and, how many of those "uncatchables" were throw-aways in his direction? That one just reeks of being a grossly skewed stat with no appropriate context.

Whatever the reason, none of it matters; it's getting blown up, now.

A couple words for OBJ. Well...bye.

I don't blame OBJ for being mad or frustrated. The guy has been a model citizen since he's been here. Done everything asked of him. He's running wide open every game and just wants the QB to pass him the ball. Like any WR would. Every other QB in the league is able to get their #1 WR the ball except ours. It's frustrating.

Berry should have traded OBJ yesterday. Big time fail by him. So many chinks in the armor of Berry, Stefanski, and Baker this year it's startling. What looked like a 4-7 year run of successful football with a team run by really smart competent people with really good football players will most likely be picking in the top ten of next year's draft.

Yay! Only in Cleveland.

Words of advice to all Browns fans...you could have Paul Brown as your coach, Belichek as your DC, Walsh as your OC, Brady as your QB, Montana as your backup, Brown as your RB, Rice at WR with Taylor and Smith rushing the passer and you'd finish 5--12. So don't ever get your hopes up.

That's just the way the Browns roll.

You don't blame him for this stunt via dad? Or that LeBron and others were tweeting free OBJ? You think for one second that he had nothing to do with that? Makes me wonder if he was dropping passes trying to get cut or traded. smh, and I hate that I even have to consider that. I'd bench him for the year before I cut him.

There was no market for OBJ. He's injured, some have speculated he would not pass a physical if traded, and expensive, most teams didn't have the cap space to absorb his salary. He's also not been productive. Triple whammy.

Let's be real. If it was found out that he was tanking on the field to get a trade his career might be over.

Well it must have been in his head then because his recent drops looked nothing like him, ever.

Rish.. it looks like OBJ was unable to be traded...

And the obvious questions is, if OBJ is this dynamic, elite WR that is constantly getting wide open (no doubt Baker has missed him at times) and consistently beating the coverage, doesn't it beg the question of why weren't teams tripping over themselves to offer the Browns a deal for OBJ? As a season ticket holder, the Browns give me a subscription to NFL Game Pass for free which includes access to the All 22. Surely, the rest of the league has access to the All 22 and can see OBJ running wide open all the time and Baker just holding him back. So why no serious offers for him? Salary be dammed if he'll put you over the top.

The Browns could just as easily post the cut up of plays that OBJ dropped the ball that hit him between the numbers or bounced off his face mask.

His has deminishing skills in the words of Bill Bellicheck. He as not been vert good all year long and should look in the mirror and figure out why he is dropping the ball so often.

He has not been good since he got to Cleveland, with rare exceptions. I don’t dislike the guy, I don’t know him, but after his father posted the video, it was time for OBJ to hit the bricks.


After two-plus seasons it hasn’t worked out, for whatever reason(s). We proved last season that our O can thrive without him. Say what you want about why that is, but it’s a thing.

We eat his salary? Oh well, not my money.

I won’t be shocked if he goes elsewhere and plays well, but he wasn’t doing it here. OBS sealed his son’s fate in Cleveland.

Go DPJ! It’s your time.

I cant see how another team could have traded for OBJ, especially knowing there’s a decent chance we’d be releasing him

Maybe it's just me but "Bye Bye OBJ!" I still believe that the Stefanski needs to adjust his scheme and take the chains off Baker. I actually believe that a more open offense will enhance our running game. Unfortunately, teams are gaming us with run prevent defenses and Stefanski's inability to adjust the scheme.

Back to OBJ. IMHO, when you have key major injuries to your offense to the likes of Chubb, Hunt, and Conklin with a less than 100% QB, you need the other players to step up and pick up the slack. Last year we witnessed that team concept where they did that especially when OBJ went down. Fast forward to 2021 and what do we get? An injured OBJ to start the season. An OBJ with hands of stones when he returns for some reason and most importantly, when the team needed you to step up and perform as a contributing team member without causing a distraction we have you whining because your name was mentioned in possible but highly unlikely trade.

Now Stefanski can shoulder a lot of this because of his inability to adjust the scheme but everybody on the team has to adjust to the scheme which is obvious OBJ cares not to. Actually, IMHO the Browns will be a better team because now Landry in the slot becomes the #1 with the shots coming downfield when warranted without the constant whining the team is getting now. If Stefanski opens up the offense I believe our run game will become even more explosive and Landry will become the same threat he's been for years opening up big plays to the outside and TE. Stefanski has put together one of the best base offenses in the NFL and I'm 1000 percent behind what he has done in Cleveland. However, he's in the lower 10% of the league in making live game adjustments and or the development of the opponent game scheme for the week. He needs to take the next step to take Cleveland to that Championship level. Baker is in year 4 and the world needs to know if he can carry the team when needed - Stefanski's scheme doesn't allow for that to happen. It's time to take the next step toward excellence and without OBJ.

I agree that we need to let Baker be more like he was last year in Tennessee or Dallas. Problem is, the injury is significant and I’m not sure he can even do it.

Next year is a make or break year. I wouldn’t sign baker until after next season.

I'd be right there with you in this case (classic example of why I hate social media). But where is Odell? He hasn't said a peep as far as I can see.

Man, some of you are off your rockers. There are sooo many factors that have gotten us here. OBJ is only one, and very minor one at that. Diminishing skills? Hasn't been good since he got here? Dude owned the Dallas game last year, as an example. He has made the downfield plays you would expect, throughout his first 1.5 years here. He has blocked. He has, up until this week, been a good teammate. And yes, he has dropped some critical easy catches this year, which has hurt us. But this media (and subsequent fan) focus on him is ridiculous. Bigger problems have been...

Baker has been garbage in 2 games this year, very good in 2, and very average in 4. Whether injury, slow eyes, whatever, that is not good enough.

Stefanski's scheme is what it is...very effective in neutral/positive game-scripts, and not so much in negative scripts. Then he inexplicably breaks scheme strength goes like 5 straight 4WR sets, like early in the Steelers game...yields us 2 3&outs. The creativity we saw last season is often lacking, and like Baker, Stefanski gets worse in the 4th quarter.

When we ARE on the verge of closing games out, we have our best players fumbling (Chubb, Landry). We have phantom PI calls.

Right now, there are plenty of contributing factors to this team underachieving. But Baker's performance (again, for whatever reason) has given the local and national media what they have been craving since OBJ came to town...a big, dramatic break-up. And until he had his dad do this bush-league move, it was not OBJ's fault (or maybe #8/top 10 reasons). Now it looks like this will spiral us to a 6-11 season, and we'll see that OBJ was not the major problem. The media will look for the next controversy to create...a new rift between Landry and Baker, perhaps. Who knows. But we are not going to turn this around unless every one of those things above is fixed.

/rant.

p.s. yes, I know that defense has contributed significantly to our mediocrity, as well, but that's not this thread.

I saw an article where Odell himself posted on IG that maybe this thing w Baker and the Browns isn’t working after all. Then apparently he quickly deleted it.
Idk if it’s 100 percent accurate.
Did read that he has been sent home from todays practice as well

All I know is we finally get a GM that knows what he is doing a good HC and talent on our team and it turns into a soap opera. Only we can mess things up like this. Of course all the injuries didn't help either.

Agreed. We can’t reward the behavior and set that precedent

Sunday's game against the Bengals could be a defining moment for Stefanski. And Baker. And the team.

why are some of yall talking about OBJ as if he's toxic like the NY days?

dude has been here and hasnt caused any drama. there's more whining from Baker's wife than OBJ.


some of you posters have been trying to set up OBJ as the scapegoat since day one. crap is sad.

if yall think OBJ is washed, then it shouldnt had been an issue to just release him and let him go to another team. he wasn't gonna do anything somewhere else, right?

right?