In March, 2019, the Cleveland Browns sent a 2019 first-round pick, a 2019 third-round pick and safety Jabrill Peppers to the Giants for the services of receiver Odell Beckham Jr. In five seasons with the Giants, the 2014 first-round pick out of LSU ranked 11th in the NFL in receptions (390), 10th in targets (622), seventh in receiving yards (5,476), and third in receiving touchdowns (44). He also became the fastest player in NFL history to reach both 200 career receptions and 4,000 career receiving yards. Beckham did all that despite playing in just 44 games through those five seasons — he played in just four games and had just two starts in 2017 due to an ankle injury, and a quadriceps issue cost him the final four games of the 2018 season, his last with Big Blue.
Beckham also left behind a litany of amazing catches that seemed out of the skill set of most other people playing his position.
During his time with the Browns, Beckham’s productivity has been far more in question. 2019 was the usual good-season-when-healthy — 74 catches on 133 targets for 1,035 yards and four touchdowns in a dysfunctional offense led by head coach Freddie Kitchens.
In Week 7 of the 2020 season under new head coach and offensive shot-caller Kevin Stefanski, Beckham — who had caught just 23 passes on 43 targets for 319 yards and three touchdowns — suffered a torn ACL that ended his season. The recovery from that injury also cost him the first two games of the 2021 season, and he made his season debut against the Bears in a 26-6 win in which Beckham caught five passes on seven targets for 77 yards.
That seemed like a nice way to get back in the swing of things, but in the next two games — a 14-7 Week 4 win over the Vikings, and a heartbreaking 47-42 loss to the Chargers — Beckham caught just four passes on 10 targets for 47 yards. Quarterback Baker Mayfield’s inability to connect with Beckham as the Chargers erased and overcame Cleveland’s 27-13 third-quarter lead seemed the last straw for a lot of Browns observers. Now, the only talk about Beckham seems to be what the team could get in trade for him.
Things got no better from there. Beckham caught five passes on eight targets for 79 yards in Cleveland’s 37-14 Week 6 loss to the Cardinals, two passes on six targets for 23 yards in the team’s Week 7 win over the Broncos, and just one pass on two targets for six yards in last Sunday’s loss to the Steelers. On the season, Beckham has 17 catches on 34 targets for 232 yards and no touchdowns. The most stunning number in Beckham’s season is three — he has just three catches on throws of 20 or more air yards this season on 10 targets for 75 yards. That Beckham leads the team in deep targets by a fairly wide margin — rookie receiver Anthony Schwartz ranks second with six — tells you a lot about the state of Cleveland’s passing game in 2021.
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) November 5, 2021
Now that this has all come to a head, and the the Browns have released Beckham, what can we tell from Beckham’s limited opportunities regarding his best fits with other NFL offenses?