Cleveland Browns: Florio won’t rule out in-season Odell Beckham trade

He’s the second-most traded man in this town’s sports history, behind Kevin Love, and the trade chatter continues to churn for Cleveland Browns receiver Odell Beckham.

Pro Football Talk’s appeared on ESPN Cleveland radio and talked about Beckham’s road-to-recovery after the wideout suffered a season ending ACL injury halfway through the 2020 campaign.

Florio noted how things have been quiet on the rehabilitation front, and guessed that’s probably good news. He cautioned fans, though, stating that typically, with the exception of Adrian Peterson, NFL players just don’t return from the injury and become the same player they were.

Next, Florio broached the trade topic, first stating that he could see a trade if the Browns somehow struggle.  As long as OBJ is healthy, Florio said he could see teams becoming interested.

Then he said something really interesting: He could see a trade, even if the Browns are winning, via TheLandonDemand.com.

"“If he struggles or the team struggles, I could see him being available when the trade deadline rolls around. It could be the Browns decide we don’t need him. We can do this without him and then make a decision to maximize the asset and send him to anther team, halfway through the season.”"

This shouldn’t come as big news to hardcore followers of the team. The Browns could potentially have $30 million tied up between Jarvis Landry and OBJ again next season. With players, such as Baker Mayfield and Nick Chubb looking for extension, it would seem something will have to give.

Factor in the Browns developing receivers, such as Donovan Peoples-Jones, who had a tremendous rookie season, by the way, in addition to speedy wideout Anthony Schwartz this past spring, and then, yeah–you can see Cleveland eventually parting ways with at least one of its wideouts.

Something else to consider, when Florio talked about players returning from ACL injuries and not being themselves: Beckham wasn’t an elite receiver when he got hurt. He had a 1,000-yeard campaign in 2019, but it’s truly been four years since he was among the cream of the NFL’s receiving crop.

Then, there’s Baker Theory. With OBJ on the field, the offense could clunky and disjointed. Sure, there some exceptions (Dallas comes to mind), but with OBJ out, Mayfield and the entire offense, just seemed to be better, as the narrative shifted away from getting Beckham the ball.