BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Any drama surrounding Odell Beckham Jr.’s availability this week was eliminated when head coach Kevin Stefanski ruled him out on Wednesday.
Beckham, who is returning from a season-ending torn ACL, will miss his second straight game to begin the season.
“He’s a true competitor…obviously he wants to be out there,” receiver Jarvis Landry said Thursday. “There’s no doubt in anybody’s mind in this building that he wants to be able to be out there, but again, that’s situation with coach and the training staff and how they handle it.”
Landry did not have any idea when Beckham might be ready to make his 2021 debut.
“His situation honestly is really honestly between him and coach and the training staff in there and his camp about how they’re handling things,” Landry said. “I think the most important thing is that he’s continuing to get healthy and when he’s comfortable enough he’ll be out there.”
In Beckham’s absence, rookie Anthony Schwartz caught three passes for 69 yards, including a 44-yarder, and added a 17-yard run.
That performance likely gave Stefanski the confidence to apply the brakes and not rush Beckham back this week against Houston.
“I was extremely proud of the way he played, the way he approached the game,” Landry said. “I don’t know if he even had a mental error in the game. He played close to pretty much a perfect game. He really showed his speed and his presence is definitely felt. I think people now as we move forward will get a good understanding of what he can do and we’ll have a better understanding of how he can help us as an offense as well.”
Landry and Beckham have spent a lot of time before, during and after practice working with Schwartz, selected in the third round of the 2021 draft.
Landry takes mentoring younger players seriously.
“I think it’s extremely important, especially in early phases of a career,” Landry said. “I think a lot of the foundation has been set. That’s probably what got him here. But if you can take experience in any profession from a five-year guy, from a 10-year guy, 20-year guy - all the experience - if you can take that in at an early age, you kind of get past that learning curve faster.
“That’s something I’ve taken pride in, Odell has taken pride in, just making sure no information is withheld. Just be willing to give all the gems away to make sure we have guys that treat the game the way we do and the standard is kept to a high level in our room.”
Prepping Hudson – With Jedrick Wills Jr. and Chris Hubbard sidelined with injuries, the Browns have been preparing rookie James Hudson III to play left tackle against the Texans offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt confirmed.
“We will play whoever is available obviously, and we will expect them to play well, regardless of rookie or not,” Van Pelt said.
Hudson had an up and down camp and preseason but Van Pelt is confident if called upon the fourth round pick will be ready.
“He is getting better. He is definitely an arrow pointed up guy,” Van Pelt said. “All of the work he has put in already from the day he got here rookie minicamp, he has had one-on-one practice with coach Callahan and coach Peters. He is going to continue to get better. He is a guy who I am excited to see, if he does get a chance to play this week, to see how he responds to a real NFL game.”
Left guard Joel Bitonio is ready to play next to whoever goes Sunday.
“There’s adjustments I’ve worked with Jed all of training camp [and] you’re most comfortable with him but now, since Joe Thomas has not been here, I’ve played with a lot of tackles so it’s always a new adventure, but you get reps in practice, and you get work,” Bitonio said. “I think guys are going to be prepared and as long as you got the playbook part of it down, I think we can communicate on game day and figure out where we gotta go and block guys.”
While center JC Tretter worked on the side, Wills and Hubbard were not on the field Thursday.
Keeping the faith – Special teams coordinator Mike Priefer doesn’t know why punter Jamie Gillan was unable to cleanly field a snap in the fourth quarter Sunday at Kansas City. Even though Priefer called the gaffe “inexcusable,” his faith in Gillan remains.
“I think he just dropped it,” Priefer said. “Did he take his eye off it? I don’t know. I don’t think the moment was too big for him. I don’t think the crowd was involved, he’s not a rookie. If he was a rookie and that was his first play, maybe. But he’s got plenty of time to hit six blocks. We had it blocked up. They had a return look, but we’ve got to pick it up, take one step and punt it out of there and he didn’t react the way we wanted him to.”
Gillan tried to run with the ball but was taken down at the 15. A few plays later, the Chiefs took their first lead of the afternoon, which they held onto.
“We talked about it a little bit on the airplane, and he had really no excuse, no excuse why he dropped it,” Priefer said. “He’s not an excuse-maker, he’s a standup guy and he knows he’s got to perform at a high level and keep being a weapon for our football team and it starts this Sunday.”
The Browns do not practice potential special teams miscues, like snaps that get away.
“I don’t like to practice failure. I’m being serious, like a fire call on a field goal,” Priefer said. “We muff a field goal snap, we talk about it, we might walk through it, but we never want to actually practice that exact situation because to me if you’re practicing a dropped snap, you’re practicing failure. Do we talk about those things? Of course, and we cover the different situations.”
Injury report – DNP: LT Chris Hubbard (triceps), C J.C. Tretter (knee), LT Jedrick Wills (ankle); LIMITED: WR Odell Beckham Jr.
(knee-OUT), DT Tommy Togiai (illness), RT Jack Conklin (knee), S Grant Delpit (hamstring), G Michael Dunn (back), CB Greg Newsome (biceps), WR Anthony Schwartz (knee), LB Mack Wilson (quad), LB Anthony Walker (hamstring); FULL: CB Troy Hill (hamstring)
Up next – Practice Friday.