CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cleveland Browns were a winner Sunday but once again a victory was overshadowed by a bigger story off the field.
Receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was the center of not one, but two pregame reports before Cleveland’s 27-19 win over the Bengals.
First was that Beckham will require sports hernia surgery in the offseason.
“I’ve been dealing with it since training camp, but it is what it is at this point,” Beckham said in the locker room after the game.
“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out after the season.”
Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield put the training staff on blast after the game for failing to get Beckham healthy.
“It wasn’t handled right,” Mayfield said. “He’s not able to run as well as he should be able to as well as he knows, and that’s frustrating for him. You can sense some of the frustration, where that comes from so, it wasn’t handled the right way in our training room.
“His not 100% is still good enough for us.”
Mayfield believes that the injury should’ve never gotten to this point.
“I think it could’ve been addressed earlier on,” Mayfield said.
“Looking back on it, obviously, hindsight is 20-20, but he probably would’ve missed the first two [games]. One or two based on the fact it was during training camp, but it is what it is. We’re here right now, it’s too late to do that. He’s playing through pain so that shows you what type of guy he is.”
Mayfield took to Twitter following his postgame news conference to apologize for his remarks about the training staff in a pair of tweets.
“My intentions were not to throw our medical staff under the bus,” Mayfield tweeted. “No I don’t know all the facts about Odell’s injury. It was emotionally answered because I can sense his frustration and I care about my team and putting us in the best position to win.
“Those people within our building know my intentions and where I am coming from. I truly believe that and I apologize to those that don’t deserve the backlash.... today was a good team win. On to the next one.”
Beckham caught two passes for 39 yards in the win over Cincinnati, the sixth for the Browns on the season to get them to 6-7 and keep their faint playoff hopes on life support.
“I really don’t run until Friday,” Beckham. “I come out here and do what I can. At this point, it is what it is. There’s nothing to really do, just finish out the season, try to be 1-0, try to get these playoffs, all these same goals regardless of what’s going on.”
The second big story was that Beckham wants out of Cleveland, and he has been telling opposing coaches and players before games to “come get me” according to Jay Glazer of Fox Sports.
“I’m not going to talk about any offseason stuff that’s going on,” Beckham said. “Right now, the focus is to win, 1-0 and that’s what we did today. Any other questions about it, I’m not going to answer.”
Last week Beckham would not say if he wanted to be back with the Browns next year and speculation or questions about his future is nothing new to him.
“I’m used to it,” Beckham said. “I’ve been dealing with this for three, four years. Just the same thing that’s going on. Not anything that I can’t handle.”
Mayfield hasn’t heard that Beckham wants out.
“No, he wants to win,” Mayfield said. “I have said that over and over again. That is not going to change, and he is not going to change who he is. He is Odell, and he is proud to be who he is. He wants to win.”
That desire to win is why Mayfield was dismissive of Glazer’s report and the drama that now comes with it.
“The drama is just drama,” Mayfield said. “It continues to be that on the outside. Within our walls, we know exactly what we have, and we have a good relationship where it is very straight to the point. I am not worried about that.”
