Cleveland Browns: On OBJ going dark, Pat Shurmur speaks of trade

Get used to the Cleveland Browns being in the news, even when their shiniest new toy, Odell Beckham Jr. announces that he’s going quiet on social media.

Odell Beckham Jr. is going “dark,” meaning he wants to cut off communication to the outside world. But first, he needed to inform his roughly million Instagram followers that he didn’t want to be bothered.

Clevelanders are used to playing social media guessing games, but with their once-in-a-generation homegrown basketball talent, not their new receiver.

Instagram and Twitter have opened up avenues previously unknown for today’s athlete. What’s the point of announcing you’re going off the grid? I don’t know, but if it was a dopamine blast Beckcham was in search for, all he had to do was show up and smile for the cameras in Berea, a place he still hasn’t visited since the trade.

This isn’t to say Beckham wasn’t thrown for a loop in lieu of the deal. Athletes become creatures of habits in what they eat, how they train and who they train with. Sure, players switch via free agency, but that’s at their own doing. Being the most talented receiver in the NFL, and basically given away for the 17th overall pick? It might’ve rocked OBJ’s world.

Beckham deleted the post hours later.

• Elsewhere around the OBJ world, Giants coach and former Cleveland Browns coach Pat Schurmur was in Columbus Wednesday afternoon to watch Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins participate in the Buckeyes pro day.

Of course, Shurmur was asked about the OBJ trade, and he revealed it was a collaborative effort within the organization to pull the trigger on the deal, via The New York Post.

"“With regard to Odell and even [Olivier Vernon], it was business,’’ Shurmur said. “I know from my standpoint on a personal level anybody I’ve ever worked with I wish the best for when they leave. I’m hopeful O.V. and Odell can go to Cleveland, have an impact and help their team win games. That’s where it’s at.’’"

Leading up to the trade, there was plenty of social media speculation that OBJ had grown frustrated playing for Shurmur, a coach would couldn’t maximize his talents, as well as an aging quarterback in Eli Manning.

With the Giants expected to take a quarterback, one might think Shurmur didn’t want to pair a rookie quarterback such as Haskins with mega-star such as Beckham.

Beckham can be a volatile player, evidenced by his sideline tantrums, as caught by NFL.com cameras. 

Not exactly a situation you’d want to put Dwayne Haskins in, especially since some feel the redshirt sophomore needs another year playing football.

• On a closing note, two-round mocks are starting to creep up as the NFL Draft nears, so just because the Browns are without a first-round pick, doesn’t mean we have to give up the fun of guessing who they’ll take.

Cleveland Browns staff writer Andrew Gribble did mock round up to no surprise, mocksters have the Browns looking at secondary and linebacker help.