The Baker Mayfield-Odell Beckham Jr. relationship did not pan out for the Cleveland Browns and two players are shedding some light on that dynamic.
Browns defensive players Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Greg Newsome recently joined the Varsity House podcast and divulged a bit when asked about the team’s chemistry with Beckham.
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“Odell gotta be one of the best teammates I ever had,” Owusu-Koramoah said.
“No,” Newsome interjected. “He’s probably the best teammate.”
Both Owusu-Koramoah and Newsome were rookies last season and said that even though they were on the defensive side of the ball, Beckham would take them under his wing, would not haze them and pulled them aside to give advice when he could. They even said Beckham would give them shoes or cleats to wear.
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“Honestly, the crazy thing is Baker was a great teammate, too,” Newsome said. “It’s weird…he would do stuff – I would hang out with some offensive guys and he would take us out after games. I would go out to dinner, if my family was out of town, he’d invite me out to dinner and hang out with him.”
So, if both were such great teammates, what happened between them?
“It was just like, it was so much those relationships just from the whole entire thing was just off, honestly,” Newsome said. “Yes, it was distracting, but I knew at the end of the day I still gotta do my job. …We play defense, we don’t have to worry about the guy throwing us the ball or the guy catching the ball. We gotta stop them. We control our destiny…it was distracting, for sure.”
Beckham saw the clip of the interview on Twitter and responded:
It is interesting to see Newsome talk about the situation with such candidness, admitting that it was a distraction for the team, which eventually released Beckham and finished a disappointing 8-9.
He also talks about Mayfield in the past tense despite the quarterback still being on the roster, although a Mayfield trade seems inevitable despite what happens with Deshaun Watson.
Beckham obviously had much more success when he joined the Los Angeles Rams and won a Super Bowl. It remains to be seen if Mayfield will be better off with a new team, too.
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