Isn’t it funny that this portion of the NFL off-season has been more entertaining than that snooze fest of big game known as the Super Bowl was more than a month ago? When I say a lot has transpired in the last three days, I’m not lying. First, Antonio Brown is traded after all the rumors and speculations, Nick Foles signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, DeSean Jackson got traded back to Philadelphia and the New York Giants decided not to bring back Landon Collins. The Giants are in the news again. The rumors have swirled around for the last year or so and it’s finally happened. Odell Beckham Jr. has been traded to the Cleveland Browns.
We can talk about the antics, the sideline shenanigans, the attitude and everything he’s known to do, this is one of the three best wide receivers in the league right now. I also think he’s one of the best offensive weapons in the league that isn’t a quarterback. He’s a playmaker that has a tantalizing combination of speed, consistent route running, the leaping ability to jump out of the stadium and win every jump-ball situation. He displays excellent footwork, hand-eye coordination and solid body control to keep his feet in bounds to make a play. One play can turn into something explosive when it comes to number 13. He also displays phenomenal quickness and craftiness and what I mean by this is how he is when he runs his routes, how smoothly he runs to get in and out of his breaks. He can run his route, fake as if he’s about to go one way, cut up the field and he’s wide open the field and the ball is in his hands. It truly doesn’t make a difference where he’s lined up on the field because he’s so effective in more ways than one. You can try to jam him at the line of scrimmage, but he’s tough enough to handle the physicality and playing a zone on him is almost like playing a zone on Steph Curry on the basketball court, any type of space you give Odell, he’s working with it and a zone scheme is just asking for you to allow him to run by you. He’s also dangerous in open space with how he blows by defenders with the ball in his hands and he can also stiff-arm people.
The minute I saw that he was possibly being considered by an AFC North team, I knew the Browns were in the running simply because of his best friend, Jarvis Landry. This could be one of the five or six best offenses in the league if all pans out. Baker Mayfield, Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt, Jarvis, Odell, Njoku? The AFC North just got interesting.
