Odell Beckham has been staying away from offseason workouts in Cleveland. It’s not necessarily a big deal (these are voluntary practices, after all) but it could affect the size of the role he plays in the team’s offense.
This is the time of year, after all, where they’re drawing up and teaching plays. This would be a good time for Beckham and Baker Mayfield to start developing a rapport. It’s with the extra reps and time spent together that a passing combo is on the same page in key situations.
Freddie Kitchens may be starting to lose patience with his star receiver. Asked what Beckham has missed, the coach replied, "A lot -- the offense.''
There are certain receivers who are heavily featured go-to options in the red zone. With Beckham missing all of this work, it reinforces my feeling that he’s not going to be one of those guys. The Browns have a bunch of other capable pass catchers, and I don’t they’ll all be shoved to the side and made spectators as Beckham catches 15 touchdowns.
As I pointed out a few weeks ago, Mayfield threw 27 touchdowns last year, and nobody caught more than 4 of them. The previous season, Mayfield threw 43 at Oklahoma, with nobody catching more than 8. He knows how to spread the ball around.
Mayfield had an elite-type receiver last year (Jarvis Landry) and didn’t make much of an effort to use him heavily. In the 13 games Mayfield started, Landry caught 61 passes for 698 yards and 4 TDs. I will grant that Beckham is faster and more talented, but this doesn’t look to me like a guy who has any chance of catching 100 passes.
It’s around the goal line that I don’t think Beckham will play a monster role. He’ll catch some touchdowns, but I don’t think he’ll be a dominating offense in that part of the field.
Inside the 10 last year, the Browns attempted 31 passes, and they went to 10 different pass catchers.
| CLEVELAND PASS CATCHERS INSIDE 10 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Att | Com | Pct | TD | 2Pt | EZ% |
| Antonio Callaway | 8 | 5 | 63% | 3 | 1 | 50% |
| Jarvis Landry | 8 | 4 | 50% | 1 | 0 | 13% |
| David Njoku | 5 | 3 | 60% | 3 | 0 | 60% |
| Duke Johnson | 3 | 1 | 33% | 1 | 0 | 33% |
| Darren Fells | 2 | 2 | 100% | 2 | 0 | 100% |
| Baker Mayfield | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0 | 1 | 100% |
| Carlos Hyde | 1 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Damion Ratley | 1 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Nick Chubb | 1 | 1 | 100% | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Seth Devalve | 1 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% |
—Ian Allan