BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Odell Beckham Jr. is unhappy with the Browns and has been begging opponents to get him out of Cleveland according to a pair of reports.
Beckham was acquired by general manager John Dorsey to give his young quarterback, Baker Mayfield, a prolific target to throw the ball too but it appears that relationship might not last longer than a year.
“I can’t answer that for him,” Mayfield said. “There are all the rumors going around, but I have had my conversations with him, and I know what we talk about, so I trust him wholeheartedly.”
Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported Sunday Beckham had been telling opponents to “come get me” and Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports reported Monday that Beckham felt “lost” and spoke with members of the Patriots and 49ers specifically about joining their teams next year.
Unfortunately, Beckham has been dealing with a reported sports hernia injury since training camp and his targets have been consistently inconsistent this season.
“He is fighting through pain,” Mayfield said. “It shows you how much he really wants to win. The things that I have continuously said about him, he wants to be the solution to help us. It is the same message.”
Beckham is second on the team in receptions and yardage – 59 catches and 844 yards – but just two touchdowns this season.
Cleared air – Mayfield and the Browns have put the quarterback’s postgame comments in which Mayfield said the training staff didn’t handle Beckham’s injury properly or timely behind them.
Moments after his presser, Mayfield took to Twitter and apologized via two tweets.
“I had the conversations that I needed to, in the building,” Mayfield said. “Like I said, when I addressed it afterwards, the effect that those words have in the bigger scheme and the bigger picture were not my intentions. The people within our building, like I said, know where I am coming from. They know my frustration, and they know that if I was happy go lucky about everything then we would have a real problem on our hands. I talked to the people I needed to so am confident in that and us moving forward.”
Head coach Freddie Kitchens said he met with Mayfield Monday morning about the inappropriateness of the remarks.
Making history – Running back Nick Chubb has done something no Brown has done in history – begin his career with over 1,000 total yards from scrimmage in each of his first two seasons.
“It means a lot,” Chubb said. “Definitely to me and this whole organization, we are all in this together. I am just happy to be able to do it for the Cleveland Browns and to be a part of this journey that I am on. I am happy I have everyone here with me going through it with me.
“Everybody plays a part. The blocking, the guys block on the outside, the receivers, the offensive line – just everyone it is not just me.”
Chubb, who fell just 4 yards shy of the coveted 1,000 rushing as a rookie, currently leads the NFL with 1,281 yards on the ground this season.
The 2018 second-round pick is as quiet as they come. He doesn’t like talking about himself or his accomplishments. You won’t see him celebrate a long touchdown run or show frustration when he gets stopped for a minimal gain.
So it’s no surprise he’s not keeping an eye on the league leaders.
“I was not paying attention at first to get where I am so I am not going to start now,” Chubb said. “I am just going to keep playing every week, preparing, starting the practice like today and keep working and keep working. If I keep working like I am, things will happen for me in the right way. I am counting on that.”
That’s just who Chubb is.
Hollywood ending – Receiver Rashard Higgins did not receive an offensive snap in Sunday’s 27-19 win over the Bengals prompting questions as to why that was.
“We try to play the players that give us the best chance to win each and every week,” Kitchens said. “That is strictly a week-to-week thing so it may be different this week than it was last week. It may be different next week than it is this week.”
Higgins, who played 25 snaps against Miami and 29 snaps at Pittsburgh, was on the field for just one special teams play – the Bengals’ onside kick attempt.
Early flight – The Browns will fly to Arizona Friday afternoon after practice.
“The game is a 2 p.m. game out there, which is [a] 4 p.m. game so that is really not a big factor,” Kitchens said. “It is really just so you are not traveling that distance the day before the game. Different people do it different ways. I was in Arizona for 11 years, and it is a lot different when you are traveling from west to east.”
Kitchens has a field somewhere reserved for their usual Saturday walkthrough
“We like to get out of the hotel and go walkthrough and kind of maintain our normal schedule,” Kitchens said. “Everything we do when we travel, we try to maintain as much normalcy as we can.”
Catch me if you can – David Njoku had a frustrating start to Wednesday practice. The tight end dropped four passes working on air with no defense.
Injury report – DNP LB Sione Takitaki (illness), JC Tretter (knee)
LIMITED: WR Odell Beckham Jr. (groin), WR Jarvis Landry (hip), DE Olivier Vernon (knee), WR KhaDarel Hodge (Achilles), RT Chris Hubbard (knee), S Eric Murray (knee), TE David Njoku (knee),
FULL: TE Demetrius Harris (shoulder), RB Dontrell Hilliard (knee), CB Greedy Williams (shoulder), CB Denzel Ward (ankle)
