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With the other thread reaching 10 pages long and the subject matter changing to a 'past tense',... I hope it's ok to start a new thread, hopefully to to take the conversation into


Report: Odell Beckham Jr. asked to be traded multiple times

Posted by Mike Florio on November 5, 2021, 9:15 AM EDT

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.c...am-jr-asked-to-be-traded-multiple-times/


It’s been a lot longer in the making than it seems.

Browns receiver Odell Beckham Jr. asked to be traded on multiple occasions this year, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He first requested a trade in the offseason, while recovering from a torn ACL suffered against the Bengals last year.
His most recent request came after what will end up being his last game with the team, Sunday’s home loss to the Steelers.

The Browns tried to trade Beckham, but they found no takers. Discussions occurred with the Saints, but the two teams couldn’t agree on compensation for the Browns or the amount of Beckham’s remaining salary that the Browns would pay.

The situation became public on Tuesday morning, with Odell Beckham Sr. posting a video that showed various occasions in his OBJ was open and quarterback Baker Mayfield failed to get Beckham the ball. Then, LeBron James tweeted, “#FreeOBJ.” Per Cabot, the social-media campaign “created a firestorm” for the Browns, and it “left Mayfield beside himself.”

It’s ultimately going to leave Beckham with a new team. As PFT reported last night, and as others have confirmed, the Browns plan to release Beckham today, his 29th birthday.

Too bad we couldnt trade him earlier

Wondering to myself. hmmm could we sign somebody or will Switzer or Jo Jo get signed off the practice squad?

As expected, Browns are releasing Odell Beckham Jr.

Posted by Mike Florio on November 5, 2021, 10:11 AM EDT
link

It’s over in Cleveland. Where it goes from here remains to be seen.

The Browns have released receiver Odell Beckham Jr. PFT reported on Thursday night that the plan was to make the release happen on Friday.

“After careful consideration, internal discussions and conversations with Odell and his representation, we’ve determined that it is in the best interest of all parties involved that Odell no longer play for the Cleveland Browns,” G.M. Andrew Berry said in a statement released by the team. “We appreciate all his efforts and contributions while in Cleveland, but we’ve just reached a point where it is best that we move forward as a team without Odell. We are finalizing the process of granting Odell his release and we wish him well as he continues his career.”

Because the transaction is occurring after the trade deadline, Beckham must pass through waivers.

The two sides are believed to have agreed on a revised contract that presumably limits the team’s financial obligation to Beckham and/or spreads some of the cap burden to future years by converting some of the salary into a signing bonus. The negotiations undoubtedly tried to find a sweet spot that would reduce Beckham’s pay from Cleveland in order to allow him to get his wish to play elsewhere. At some point, however, the remaining salary becomes sufficiently low to entice a team to claim Beckham on waivers. Perhaps a team for which Beckham doesn’t want to play.

One way to avoid that outcome would be, as someone far smarter than me (it’s a low bar) pointed out last night, to insert significant per-game roster bonuses into the revised contract. This would dissuade a team from claiming the contract while also limiting Cleveland’s total payment to Beckham.

It will be interesting to see the terms of the revised deal, and then it will be interesting to see whether someone claims Beckham.

Go Higgins!

I agree, it would have been great if our front office took care of this problem before came to all this 'drama'.

Odie didn't want to play for the Browns and let the Browns know it during the offseason.

WHY?

Why couldn't the front office get the job done before it became a problem for the entire locker room?

DPJ and Higgy would be very big for us

The tipping point with OBJ, throughout his career, has been how his "headspace" will affect the team and his production on the field.

If he asked for a trade before the season, I consider this situation a bit of a failure on the part of the FO. Get your third rounder and run like hell. It would be different if there was any indication that there was about to be some magical "breakthrough" on the field of play -- there was none.

I realize he was rehabbing, but it seems (to me) we did ourselves no favors during that time. The whole world was watching his rehab videos, listening to glistening commentary from teammates about his progress, etc... Our coaches and FO were like "OBJ's making progress but it's going to take time". I would have been like "It's been a remarkable rehab and he seems to be way ahead of schedule. It's a testament to his hard work, desire to play the game he loves and incredible athleticism to come out of this looking better than before".

I'm sure the albatross of a high salary would have played a role in any negotiations (or lack thereof). Since that would likely have had a negative effect on our "return on investment" we may have blinded ourselves to the mantra of "let's just get to next year and no dead money". Big mistake, hope we learned our lesson.

Rule #1 in the "guardrail" of using analytics -- know when to cut your losses.

We shoulda traded him after the Dallas game last year lol

Because he was coming off a serious injury. His trade value was low and he had more value as a vet WR already on the roster. I doubt folks thought his value would continue to decline, much less the soap opera that's ensued.

It's a loss. It sucks for everyone. Take it, minimize future damage, and move on. We are still a talented squad. This could end up being a positive if it galvanizes the locker room and allows the WR room to slot better into place.

so is this ALL BECAUSE OF HIS FATHER? We didn't try to trade him. So I find it hard to believe we were gonna release him until this happened

I doubt he will be healthy enough to be picked up.

Even if he passes a physical, he's one good hit from being sidelined again. He's obviously playing in pain.

500 receiving yards in 2 years. Major knee injury last year. Multiple (maybe intentional?) key/4th down drops this year. Asked to be traded multiple times. Total OBJ move... 🗑🔥👋

Those third and fourth down drops to kill drives won't help his cause.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. Team will be fine without him although with all the injuries I doubt we see that this season. It's going to be a long year in Cleveland. Go Browns!

No matter what the outcome with the other side of the equation (Baker), as soon as OBJ went silent on his dad's video, he had to go. Too bad. I hope that he finds what he's looking for...my guess is he has a few big games left in him, but not some rise to the status he clearly feels he deserves.

and then we go back to the talk of perhaps Baker intentionally avoiding throwing it OBJ's way, and you have to ask yourself: How long have the other guys on the offense known the real score and if they have, how warranted would Baker have been to truly be wary of throwing Odell's way?

Since the info has come out that he asked for a trade multiple times during the offseason, you HAVE to think that the guys weren't as blindsided by all of this as they are saying in the media. I suspect that they're all just being dutiful and putting up the wall and keeping what they know internal, but the one unnamed player that commented on the sort of guy Odell has been does lend to the idea that he hasn't been all that the public knowledge image paints. If that's the case, then there is a REALLY good chance that OBJ has consistently just not been where he's supposed to be, and if nothing else THIS explains the perception that we are a better offense without Odell than we are with him, because if you simply insert a player that DOES go where the play calls for them to be, your chances of success increase. No matter how much talent he has or how open he thinks he is getting, if he isn't where he is supposed to be, he is hurting the offense.

I must just be old school and believe that players should live up to their word to play under a contract, rather than connive an exit strategy that amounts to a temper tantrum executed by everyone around you but you. My old man eyes see it like this:

1. OBJ decided for whatever reason he didn't want to play in Cleveland even though he had a binding contract.
2. When he didn't get his requested trade, he decided to be just enough of a pain that he would fly under the radar of "conduct detrimental" to keep his "innocent" act afloat.
3. When the trade deadline got close, I think he may have manipulated just enough whining that Dad took up for his son recognizing the power of social media.
4. Really? Free OBJ...A millionaire acting like another millionaire was "oppressed" by playing football for the Browns.

In the end, I think the Browns were left no choice unless they wanted some pouting 29 year old on Social Media distracting the team. IMO OBJ is manipulative, classless and has zero integrity. Good luck to the next team of sportswriters that will hail his arrival.

I knew there had to be more behind the scenes. Actually, I suspect there's even more than we have heard so far.

I wonder how Landry feels about all this. I mean, they are lifelong friends who watched their greatest dream go up in smoke. He seems like the kind of guy to put blinders on when he steps between the lines but it has to really suck.

He wanted to be the Sports Center highlight flashy razzle dazzle player here and he couldn't so he wanted to go. The Browns was never the team for him, especially in Ski's system. I watched him carefully on TV, when I went to games and on Building the Browns. He was always to himself (or with Jarvis) and never celebrated with other teammates. He might as well had been off to the side by himself. He was the most distant without being distant player I have seen. I do think he tried to make it work and wanted to be here the first 2 years. After that he was over it. Maybe he'll do us a favor and stay out of our division. I wish him the best though and it sucks we couldn't get anything for him.

Gonna add a few things here....OBJ will go out to the Raiders now.

I also feel his slow recovery was more of a lack of interest than anything else. I read that he was upset he went to Cleveland to start with...I wouldnt touch him with a 10 foot pole if I was a team.

100%. Wonder if we ever hear a full and accurate account.

I agree, but then I suppose one might wonder why we couldn't work things out? There was also the injury situation that might scare off teams when his salary was taken in to account.

I guess it just boiled down to we weren't going to get anything for the guy, so we decided to try and make it work.

I really hope the jets or Detroit pick him up off waivers. The Jets would absolutely be hilarious.

good call. maybe Bake started avoiding him when he could tell OBJ was no longer "in it" and was dropping passes etc until he got to the point where he ran off the field instead of celebrating a touchdown. It is what it is.

To piggyback off that a bit, the "intentionally avoiding throwing it to OBJ", to this point, has always seemed a bit trite. But now that we have more details about OBJ's m.o. going all the way back to the offseason, this situation may be confounded by Baker's attitude and ego (food for thought since it's easy to pile on OBJ right now). Baker has had a chip on his shoulder since forever. He's obviously a "team" guy and has showed great maturity since a few early indiscretions (Duke Johnson incident stands out).

I truly see Bake as a "team first" guy... You never have to wonder when you see a QB with a broken wing chase the marker for a 1st down, dive, slide into the bench and then jump up to pump up the crowd. So, if Baker sees OBJ as "me first", reads the constant narrative that he can't "get him the ball", has legitimate trust issues given OBJ's performance (route running, dropping balls, trying to make circus catches, etc...), maybe the mentality as soon as he steps on the field is "F that guy".

Not saying it's necessarily true, not something that will ever be admitted to, not something a coach or FO would want in their franchise QB, but definitley could have played a role in this mystery.

To be honest - I think it would be a given that it would influence Baker's trust and therefore his decision making. And I think it would be 100% natural to be influenced. [1] Not being in the right place (speculation at this point but the reporter mentioned this yesterday in her segment and I'd bet a pretty penny there's truth to that narrative) [2] Dropping balls when it does get thrown his way - in crucial 3rd and 4th downs. [3] Clearly not wanting to be part of the team.

OBJ was still has the most targets on the team - so even if it influenced Baker, Baker still threw the ball when it seemed like the best option. If Baker was influenced - I don't think it's remotely justifiable for what OBJ has done.

So we basically paid him to leave and not be able to choose his own team. With his salary being near the minimum someone will for sure claim him now.

Very good point.

Wonder who buys the Rolls...

I got a ham sandwich for him.

Most of what I would say has been said...

I wonder how Jarvis will take this. Jarvis seems like the consummate pro and I suspect he will continue to play like that for the rest of the season but it wouldn't surprise me, especially if we don't start clicking in the 2nd half, if he wants out in the offseason.

He said he came here to win, we won, we won our first playoff game since my college age kids were born. Granted, we did most of it without him. In the offseason, we were 1 of the darling super bowl predictions. And he wants to leave? Yes, that does say loud and clear that he didn't come here just to win, he wanted his numbers and he wasn't going to get them. I can't believe a guy with his high profile asked for a trade in the offseason and the media didn't know it. They seem to know everything.

For the on-field rest of the season, we will be fine. We need DPJ back more than we need OBJ to be happy. Hopefully, if his presence was a distraction affecting playcalling, affecting Baker, they will improve.

Landry is scheduled to make $16.5M next year. If he doesn't take a pay cut or restructure his contract he'll be gone next year.

The Browns could save $15M by releasing him in the offseason.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cleveland-browns/jarvis-landry-14473/

I would like to see him stay in the AFCN ! let him divide one of their locker rooms !