The Cleveland Browns haven’t gotten the kind of performance they had hoped for out of Odell Beckham Jr. in his first two seasons with the team.
In year one, with Freddie Kitchen’s running the show, Beckham had 74 receptions for 1,035 yards and four touchdowns. The lack of touchdowns was concerning but the Browns also tried to force-feed him the ball with 133 targets.
Year two wasn’t much better before his season-ending injury. Hurt in the first play of week seven, Beckham had only 23 receptions for 319 yards but did have three touchdowns. The Browns targeted him 43 times in 2020. Surprisingly, Beckham had the fourth-most receiving yards on the team, sixth-most receptions, and tied for fourth-most receiving touchdowns.
The Browns offense started to click on all cylinders for the second half of the season which gives rise to the hope that Beckham could be the Browns breakout player in 2021, according to Sam Monson:
Cleveland’s offense has actually been significantly better without Beckham on the field than with him. While many consider the logical conclusion to that being for Beckham to get traded away, I’m instead going to say that a coach as good as Kevin Stefanski can figure out how to mesh one of the game’s most talented players with an offense that cooks on gas in his absence. Thus, 2021 will be a breakout season for Odell Beckham Jr. in a Cleveland Browns uniform.
Crediting Stefanski’s coaching, Monson belief in Beckham’s 2021 season flies in the face of some who believe the Browns’ offense would be better off without him. Instead, the Browns hope this prediction comes to pass as the team looks to take their offense to the next level by unleashing Beckham while capitalizing on the developments in the offense late in the season.
A revamped defense and a more explosive offense with Beckham could take the Browns to heights unseen in the past few decades, or more. That could certainly earn Beckham the “breakout” label and put him in line for Comeback Player of the Year!