Getty Images Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. of the Cleveland Browns.
Odell Beckham Jr. has been fairly quiet since the Cleveland Browns started training camp, but the star receiver sent a message on social media on Tuesday that could be heard loud and clear.
Beckham put up some photos from training camp with the caption: “Ain’t much to be said [that] could affect me at the moment.”
Translation: OBJ is locked in.
Beckham is rebounding from a torn ACL that he had surgery on in November. He has been impressive so far in camp and passed his physical prior to the practices. He has taken some scattered time off, but only in an effort to not push it too hard and risk re-injury before it counts.
“You hear a lot of, ‘Hey, this guy looks great coming off of an injury.’ Odell, honestly, he is like a freak of nature sometimes,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry said. “It really is amazing the amount of work that he put in and where he is today. That is a huge credit to really his focus and dedication over the offseason.”
Berry said there’s been no itch to unleash Beckham ahead of schedule.
“That is pretty easy for us just because we really do defer to the expertise of our medical and performance staff,” Berry said. “That is something that we will listen to the docs, we will listen to the trainers and we will listen to the performance staff and go by their data and their recommendation because the last thing that we want to do with any player coming back from injury is load them too quickly and then ultimately have them have a setback. That will be pretty easy for us.”
Odell Beckham is ‘Running His Own Race’
Beckham is making sure not to hurry back, ignoring what his ego might be telling him. As he noted earlier this offseason at his youth football camp, rushing back does nothing if he ends up on the sideline again.
“At this point, we’re just running our race,” Beckham said on July 25. “I feel like in the past, I’ve been caught up in this question. I’m not really here for it anymore. Whenever I’m ready to get out on the field, that’s when it will be. Whenever the team, the docs, my team, gets cleared, we’ll be ready to go. Whenever that is, Week 1, Week 17, I don’t know. Whenever we’re ready, we’ll be ready.”
Beckham played in just seven games last year before suffering the season-ending knee injury, recording 23 catches on 43 targets for 319 yards and three touchdowns.
Analysts Tout Odell Beckham As Key to AFC Race
The Browns have said multiple times that that value Beckham as an explosive, game-changing weapon in their arsenal. Some analysts believe similar about the 28-year-old, with former NFL executive turned analyst Mike Tannebaum saying Beckham could push the Browns past the Chiefs — the reigning AFC champs.
“He makes the difference for the AFC,” Tannebaum said on ESPN’s Get Up. “He can make the one or two plays a game that can take Cleveland above Kansas City. He’s Tyreek Hill. He’s that dynamic.”
Tannebaum’s colleague Dan Orlovsky thinks Beckham needs to capitalize on his opportunities, turning a smaller amount of catches into big plays.
“Odell needs to understand that his job is not to catch 10 catches a game,” Orlovsky said. “His impact is going to be, ‘Hey, I got four or five catches for 110 yards rather than 8 catches for 90. It’s the chunks out of this offense really needs out of Odell.”
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