Colin Cowherd continued his attack on Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham Jr. and the Cleveland Browns on Thursday.
The Fox Sports Radio host dug into the comments that Odell Beckham Jr. made at a press conference that very easy could have been construed as a shot at his former quarterback, Eli Manning.
“I’ve watched Baker since Oklahoma … he’s got an arm,” said Beckham who was traded to the Browns in the offseason from the New York Giants. “I have to get adjusted to the speed. He’s throwing that ball hard. Just catching them from him the first day it was completely different.”
OBJ’s frustrations with the Giants were linked to an aging Eli Manning, whose diminished skill set limited what Beckham could do on the field.
“Can he still throw it, yeah, but it’s been pretty safe and it’s been, you know, cool catching shallow and trying to take it to the house,” Beckham said in an interview with ESPN. “But I’m, you know, I want to go over the top of somebody.”
Cowherd said he didn’t think Beckham’s comments were a shot at Manning — not a hot take.
“I don’t believe it is a shot at Eli Manning,” he said. “Baker Mayfield does have a stronger arm than Eli Manning.”
But then Cowherd continued, going down a downward spiral of Browns’ hate.
“He’s as tall as I thought, he’s about as athletic as I thought, he’s as cocky as I thought,” he said of Mayfield. “This is exactly what I said he would be. I wouldn’t draft him as a GM, but he was draft-able, just not to me.
“Right now, Baker and Eli, ain’t much difference bruh. Last year against winning teams: Eli had more wins, significantly higher completion percentage, more touchdowns than picks and Eli had a significantly better passer rating.”
Anyone who has watched both quarterbacks knows those stats do not remotely tell the whole story and the two couldn’t be more different. But that’s the thing with stats — they can deliver on a narrative when radio hosts cherry pick ones they like.
Then Cowherd returned to the argument that Mayfield and Manning are the same caliber of QB.
“There’s this narrative that Baker’s a star and Eli’s a bum. I don’t think for the next year it’s that different,” he said. “I don’t think the Giants and Browns are that far apart.”
Cowherd looked to be turning over a new leaf when he said Odell-to-Baker would kill in fantasy football. But that was just to set up another set of insults.
“I think unlike an Atlanta or a New Orleans or a New England, where you don’t feel you need to get the ball to the wide receiver to make him like you, I think with Cleveland’s self esteem they will feed Odell the ball 20 times per game if they can. Because Cleveland has low self esteem.
“I think Odell might get frustrated by Week 8 when the team is 3-5 and struggling on the road against good teams and the offensive line in Cleveland isn’t as good as everyone thinks.”
Colin Cowherd: A Noted Browns Hater
As recently as the start of minicamp Cowherd had been blabbering away about Baker and how he handled the Duke Johnson Jr. situation.
“This is who Baker is, this is the immaturity,” Cowherd said. “This is what kids do. They got to win the Twitter battle, win the press conference, win the moment… It’s noise. It’s not what quarterback is about in this league.”
It’s not the first time Cowherd has been critical of OBJ this offseason, either.
Last month, Cowherd issued a list of Beckham’s top 10 most memorable moments, and only one was about his play on the field — his now famous one-handed catch in 2014.
This, of course, elicited a response from Odell, who didn’t hold back on the radio host.
Mayfield — who has battled in the past with Cowherd, calling him a donkey for his obscene takes — also spoke up on the topic, saying Cowherd needs to be “put in his place.”
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