The Browns should let Odell Beckham Jr. seek a trade if they remain committed to Baker Mayfield, not
Before the death of American newspapers the story never would have seen the light of day. The article submission would have likely earned a closed-door conversation with an editor and a suggestion that writing obituaries is really nothing to be ashamed about.
Today an idea pops into Mary Kay Cabot's head and the expectation that she churn out provocative click bait has the article up on cleveland.com within an hour.
Thus we contend today with an opinion piece entitled "The Browns should let Odell Beckham Jr. seek a trade if they remain committed to Baker Mayfield, and one report says they’re already shopping him."
One game into a season, after an embarrassing loss to the team with the NFL's best record last season and MKC is advocating dumping OBJ to help Baker?
Let's think this through. John Wayne Dorsey shot his load giving up a first round pick, a third round pick and former first round pick Jabrill Peppers to pair OBJ with his buddy Jarvis Landry in Cleveland. Dorsey then crowed about how he had pulled off a trade for a top 3 NFL receiver. The local media joined in the fun, voicing opinions that Dorsey had hoodwinked Giant's GM Dave Gettleman in the deal.
MKC was among the loudest and most enthusiastic voices, declaring that the Browns were "going for the gusto" and that the trade would "catapult the Browns into elite offensive territory."
One disappointing 1,000 yard receiving season and one game later, MKC arrives at the conclusion that Mayfield would be better off without OBJ on the team. How did she get from point A to point B?
What is true is that Dorsey conducted himself like a 12-year-old boy with one year of fantasy football experience under his belt when he went all in to bid against himself for the mercurial Giant's wide receiver. Dorsey spent way above the going rate for a talented receiver with Narcissism issues that was recently inked to top dollar contract. Gettlemen was desperately looking for an escape hatch from his mistake and in sailed the S.S. Dorsey with his massive ego and warped sense of trade value and salary cap management in tow. By contrast, in acquiring DeAndre Hopkins, the Cardinals traded a declining player (David Johnson) who was overpaid by position standards and a second round pick.
Here's the problem with trading OBJ now. You are never going to recoup what you spent for him. In fact, you aren't going to get commensurate value in a trade. His $14 million cap hit leaves most teams out of the running to even consider such a trade. If you think the Patriots are going to give up premium draft capital to pick up a talented player whom they need to manage, you haven't been watching football for the last few decades. Belichick takes your lunch money in these types of trades, it's not the other way around.
And who exactly is going to take OBJ's place to "help" Baker? Possession receiver Rashard Higgins? Sixth round draft pick Donovan Peoples-Jones who never really produced at Michigan?
Say what you want about OBJ, but he draws the opponent's #1 corner and often a safety will be rolled in his direction. That leaves someone else to cover Jarvis and so on and so forth. The trickle down causes a more favorable match-up for every other receive on the field,
If OBJ doesn't catch a single pass he still helps Baker and the other receivers on the team. Have we already forgotten the Ricardo Louis, Rashard Higgins days where teams easily covered our recievers 1-on-1 and we had to try to run pick plays to scheme them open?
Odell had some boneheaded plays against the Ravens -- the crucial drop, the facemasking penalty that he bizarrely blamed on his long fingers, lazily drifting out of bounds and failing to reestablish himself before a sideline catch. However, he was also running free several times and Baker either failed to locate him or made poor throws.
Sure, Odell wanted the NFL to cancel the season for COVID-19 and it doesn't seem like his head is in the right place. It also seemed like Kevin Stefanski did not focus on having Baker work with his top guys in the limited training camp reps to build chemistry in the new offense. But now is not the time to give up on Odell. The third round pick you might get for him in this market is not going to make your team or Baker better this season.
And what effect would trading Odell have on his best buddy Jarvis? That is part of the equation that Dorsey should have considered. It's now likely a package deal.
At least for this season, it's ride or die with OBJ. It's Kevin Stefanski's job to get him engaged in the offense and it is Baker's job to hit him when he is open.
Talk of trying to trade OBJ to benefit Baker one game into the season either: (1) naively overvalues the trade value OBJ would command at this point, (2) sophomorically overvalues the talent at the position behind OBJ, or (3) withholds important information about OBJ that would influence a rational decision on the subject.
Assuming that as a sports journalist MKC is not withholding newsworthy information, I'll have to chalk this one up to the pressures of having to write silly headlines that generate clicks.
Today an idea pops into Mary Kay Cabot's head and the expectation that she churn out provocative click bait has the article up on cleveland.com within an hour.
Thus we contend today with an opinion piece entitled "The Browns should let Odell Beckham Jr. seek a trade if they remain committed to Baker Mayfield, and one report says they’re already shopping him."
Let's think this through. John Wayne Dorsey shot his load giving up a first round pick, a third round pick and former first round pick Jabrill Peppers to pair OBJ with his buddy Jarvis Landry in Cleveland. Dorsey then crowed about how he had pulled off a trade for a top 3 NFL receiver. The local media joined in the fun, voicing opinions that Dorsey had hoodwinked Giant's GM Dave Gettleman in the deal.
MKC was among the loudest and most enthusiastic voices, declaring that the Browns were "going for the gusto" and that the trade would "catapult the Browns into elite offensive territory."
One disappointing 1,000 yard receiving season and one game later, MKC arrives at the conclusion that Mayfield would be better off without OBJ on the team. How did she get from point A to point B?
What is true is that Dorsey conducted himself like a 12-year-old boy with one year of fantasy football experience under his belt when he went all in to bid against himself for the mercurial Giant's wide receiver. Dorsey spent way above the going rate for a talented receiver with Narcissism issues that was recently inked to top dollar contract. Gettlemen was desperately looking for an escape hatch from his mistake and in sailed the S.S. Dorsey with his massive ego and warped sense of trade value and salary cap management in tow. By contrast, in acquiring DeAndre Hopkins, the Cardinals traded a declining player (David Johnson) who was overpaid by position standards and a second round pick.
Here's the problem with trading OBJ now. You are never going to recoup what you spent for him. In fact, you aren't going to get commensurate value in a trade. His $14 million cap hit leaves most teams out of the running to even consider such a trade. If you think the Patriots are going to give up premium draft capital to pick up a talented player whom they need to manage, you haven't been watching football for the last few decades. Belichick takes your lunch money in these types of trades, it's not the other way around.
And who exactly is going to take OBJ's place to "help" Baker? Possession receiver Rashard Higgins? Sixth round draft pick Donovan Peoples-Jones who never really produced at Michigan?
Say what you want about OBJ, but he draws the opponent's #1 corner and often a safety will be rolled in his direction. That leaves someone else to cover Jarvis and so on and so forth. The trickle down causes a more favorable match-up for every other receive on the field,
If OBJ doesn't catch a single pass he still helps Baker and the other receivers on the team. Have we already forgotten the Ricardo Louis, Rashard Higgins days where teams easily covered our recievers 1-on-1 and we had to try to run pick plays to scheme them open?
Odell had some boneheaded plays against the Ravens -- the crucial drop, the facemasking penalty that he bizarrely blamed on his long fingers, lazily drifting out of bounds and failing to reestablish himself before a sideline catch. However, he was also running free several times and Baker either failed to locate him or made poor throws.
Sure, Odell wanted the NFL to cancel the season for COVID-19 and it doesn't seem like his head is in the right place. It also seemed like Kevin Stefanski did not focus on having Baker work with his top guys in the limited training camp reps to build chemistry in the new offense. But now is not the time to give up on Odell. The third round pick you might get for him in this market is not going to make your team or Baker better this season.
And what effect would trading Odell have on his best buddy Jarvis? That is part of the equation that Dorsey should have considered. It's now likely a package deal.
At least for this season, it's ride or die with OBJ. It's Kevin Stefanski's job to get him engaged in the offense and it is Baker's job to hit him when he is open.
Talk of trying to trade OBJ to benefit Baker one game into the season either: (1) naively overvalues the trade value OBJ would command at this point, (2) sophomorically overvalues the talent at the position behind OBJ, or (3) withholds important information about OBJ that would influence a rational decision on the subject.
Assuming that as a sports journalist MKC is not withholding newsworthy information, I'll have to chalk this one up to the pressures of having to write silly headlines that generate clicks.
The Browns should let Odell Beckham Jr. seek a trade if they remain committed to Baker Mayfield, not
Reviewed by AT Dawgger
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8:48 AM
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Reviewed by AT Dawgger
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8:48 AM
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