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There was once a time — about 18 to 24 months ago — that Odell Beckham Jr. was considered to be the best, or at least the most talented, wide receiver in the National Football League.
Then, this offseason, after spending his first five years in the league with the lowly and offensively inept New York Giants, Odell was traded to the Cleveland Browns, leading NFL fans across the country to believe that Odell was going to take another leap forward in his career.
Lo and behold, we couldn’t have been more wrong, as not only do the pitiful Cleveland Browns currently sit at the bottom of the AFC North (again) with a record of 2-6, but Odell Beckham is on-pace for his worst 16-game season as a pro, as he’s currently on track for just 78 catches, 1150 yards, and two touchdowns. For comparison, in his *12-game* rookie season, Beckham caught 91 passes for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns.
And according to CBS’ Jay Feely, Odell is starting to let the frustration of that decreasing production boil to the surface.
Following a missed fourth-down conversion during Sunday’s 24-19 loss to the Denver Broncos, Feely reported that he heard Odell say “I can’t get the ball to save my life” as he walked off the field.
Odell Beckham was open on that 4th-and-4, but Baker Mayfield didn't throw his way.
Per CBS sideline report, Odell said after this, "I can't get the ball to save my life."#Browns | #CLEvsDEN pic.twitter.com/IelygRRjOI
— Kevin Boilard (@KevinBoilard) November 4, 2019
This isn’t the first time Beckham has expressed frustration with the Browns offense, as he said they “didn’t challenge as much as we could have.”
“I just feel like we didn’t challenge as much as we could have. I think we kind of shied away from it. I was expecting and looking forward to it, but that wasn’t the case today.”
“We had a couple plays, but for whatever reason, we didn’t do as much challenging [of] the matchups that we all talked about. Other than that, whatever came my way pretty much I caught. Whatever opportunities I had, I made the most of them. But you can only control what you can control,” Beckham said after the Browns’ 27-13 loss to the Pats.
Things don’t get much easier for the Browns, as they host the 6-2 Buffalo Bills next week before playing their NFC North rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the following week.
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Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t quite sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Contact him on Twitter @eric_ital or via email eric@brobible.com