Browns: Trading Odell Beckham Jr. wouldn’t be crazy at all

Odell Beckham Jr. has been living off of his past reputation for nearly five years now, yet many in the sports media bubble still think he’s going to return to form, despite the years of mounting injuries. It’s fair to say that Beckham is anything but his once All-Pro form, and to continually ignore the mounting toll that leg injuries take on a person’s athleticism isn’t doing anyone any good.

Beckham has been unable to get on the field for much of his past four seasons and when he’s on the field, he rarely looks like he once did. The idea of trading Beckham isn’t a far fetched idea, at least for the Browns, but ESPN’s Marcus Spears disagrees

"I think teams would be interested in trading for him. I think Cleveland would be crazy for trading him."

Spears does admit that the injuries are “starting” to creep into the conversation. After nearly five years. Just staring. After five years. With foot issues ranging back to his early days in the league. Sure. What Spears doesn’t seem to want to admit isn’t just the injuries, which has made his play inconsistent when healthy, but the fact that he’s the 8th highest-paid receiver in the game and he’s hardly ever on the field.

That’s $18 million wasted, every year. For what? For what he did in 2016? Imagine spending that much money on a guy who over the last four years can’t stay healthy. It’s not crazy to think about trading him at all.

Especially considering the Browns were great without him last year, and are, by the way, a run-first team. That $18 million needs to go to the offensive line. It needs to go to Nick Chubb. It needs to go to Baker Mayfield.

It doesn’t need to go to a player who made zero impact last year with the Browns. A Browns’ team that nearly made it to the AFC title game without him. If the Browns had a slightly better defense then who knows who goes to Tampa.

Keep him, trade him, release him, send him back in time to play in NFL Europe; do whatever. Let’s just stop acting like it’s some big shocking idea that a team would want to trade a man who’s underperformed when healthy, and has had serious leg issues throughout his career.

It’s not crazy at all. Especially for a team like the Browns.