Cleveland, OH (92.3 The Fan) – Odell Beckham Jr. might be the most popular NFL player in Cleveland and he’s not even a Brown.
Fans – and apparently Browns general manager John Dorsey too – continue to hold out hope that the Browns will be able to pry Beckham away from the Giants.
ESPN’s Josina Anderson reported Tuesday afternoon that an AFC North team continues to inquire about Beckham’s availability. There’s only one GM and team that has pursued him: Dorsey and the Browns.
There have been multiple reports to come out of New York about Beckham’s fractured relationship with current Giants – and former Browns – head coach Pat Shurmur.
“I think that the head coach (Pat Shurmur) wants to trade him,” Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News told Bull and Fox in an interview Tuesday afternoon on 923 The Fan. “I don't know if it's an organizational decision. My sense is that the head coach wouldn't shed a tear if they traded him.”
Giants general manager Dave Gettleman reiterated last month at the NFL Combine that they didn’t sign Beckham to trade him, however, press conference quotes are not sworn testimony.
Dorsey and Gettleman have already broken the ice on dealing with each other.
They’ve already agreed to one trade that benefits both teams with Cleveland getting Pro Bowl defensive end Olivier Vernon and a fourth-round pick and the Giants receiving right guard Kevin Zeitler and a fifth-round selection.
Now to the business of dealing for Beckham and the salary cap implications the Giants will be considering.
If the Browns were to acquire Beckham, who has a $21 million cap figure this year after signing a five-year, $90 million extension with $65 million guaranteed last year, before June 1, the Giants would incur a $16 million cap hit while saving $5 million in cap space in 2019.
Should New York opt to wait until after June 1 to deal him, they would incur a $4 million cap hit in 2019 and an $8 million hit in 2020 but save $17 million in space this year.
Those are relatively small numbers compared to the $21 million cap hit the Steelers will take when they officially trade Antonio Brown to Oakland on Wednesday.
As for Dorsey’s rumored pursuit of Beckham, every GM answers the phone when it rings.
That is standard procedure and not newsworthy.
But the constant chatter about a Beckham to the Browns scenario playing out continues to be resurrected shortly after it had appeared the conversation had died.
Addning more intrigue is the fact that the Browns have reprotedly agreed to a one-year, $4 million deal to keep receiver Breshad Perriman.
