Browns and Odell Beckham Jr. looking for solution to saga in Cleveland | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Eric Edholm discuss the drama between the Browns and OBJ. Why was he not traded prior to the deadline? Does Beckham have any sort of future in Cleveland? What are all the options on the table? Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
CHARLES ROBINSON: We do have to get to Odell Beckham. OK, so I've continued to work on this Odell Beckham like, sort of what's been going on with Odell Beckham Jr. He was a trade target and the Browns were open to taking calls on him Tuesday.
Now something that I've kind of learned in the process of-- of working on this, Odell wanted a trade. OK, now I don't know whether or not the organization is going to come out, and say he requested a trade. But is my understanding that his camp made it clear he wanted to be dealt off of the Cleveland Browns roster on Tuesday.
The thing was, and I had a chance to talk to teams about him last week was that there was no market and there was going to be a lot of difficulty on Tuesday. I'm not sure precisely what triggered the events of Tuesday morning, which was or at least everything came out on Tuesday morning, where his father puts up an Instagram video that's basically disparaging Baker Mayfield.
He makes disparaging comments about Baker Mayfield. LeBron James who is a close friend of Odell Beckham Jr. tweets out the whole hashtag OBJ. Given that he had expressed or his camp had expressed wishes that Odell be moved on Tuesday, I do not find it a coincidence that LeBron James tweets what he tweets, that his dad puts out the video at that moment.
It felt like a OK, we're going to force this. Like, at this point. Like, we're going to absolutely force this. And I believe and we'll see if this all comes out, I believe what happened was when he wasn't moved, at that point, it was made clear that Odell prefer to DeSean Jackson outcome.
Cut me, let me go, put me on waivers, like, you know. And the problem is with the Browns, the Browns are sitting there, going we we're on the hook for $8 million.
ERIC EDHOLM: Hey, do you?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, look like we have to pay you $8 million. We're not paying you $8 million to pass through waivers, and then go to the team of your choice, effectively hit free agency. Because it's unlikely any team would pick up that $8 million. Maybe but very unlikely.
So I think the thought process here, what happened on Wednesday was the Browns saying to Odell, talking to Odell's camp, saying you know what, we've got to figure out a way to resolve this. You go ahead and sit out practice on Wednesday while we-- we work through these things with your representation.
And I think part of what they're trying to figure out is whether they're kind of going through the layers. Number one, can we get everybody back on the same page? Unlikely. Number two, do we want to just deactivate him, tell him to stay away from the team, and we'll pay him his $8 million.
But it'll be a DeSean Watson situation where you don't got to be in the building, just your-- we're-- we're going to go ahead and put you to the side for the rest of the season. Not something you probably want to do. You know, still level of toxicity that can be expressed.
It's not really a move on type of situation at that point. Third option is go to Odell Beckham Junior's camp and say, I think this is part of what all these conversations are, OK, we owe you $8 million. Can we work something? Let's work something out. Let's make it a win-win for both sides.
You want to go, we want some of that money. We don't want to pay $8 million. There's got to be a way to free up some of that money, and you-- you get put on waivers, but we don't-- we're not going to pay your $8 million.
And then the final kind of nuclear option is just no, it's done. Like, we got-- this is so bad, it's so trashed at this point, and we just need to go ahead and waive them, let them pass through waivers. And if he's unclaimed, he goes to whatever team he wants.
But we move forward free of that, just a-- man, a lot of mess and not if we're being 100% honest here, not a lot of new mess with Odell when we consider the previous Browns regime, his fallout in New York. This is not necessarily new for-- for Odell.
