Browns: 5 storylines to follow heading into training camp

Can Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry prove they’re still among the best?

Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham are both in unique situations but to different degrees. Both men are nearing 30-years-old and both are recently removed from major surgeries. Landry went into the 2020 season having had major hip surgery, which affected him throughout that season. Odell Beckham Jr. was also dealing with an offseason injury but then sustained a torn ACL that ended his 2020 campaign.

Landry, to his credit, started to show some of his old self as the season came to a conclusion. Can he continue to recover and become an even bigger threat in this offense or is this Landry’s new normal? That’s what we have to figure out about him.

For Beckham, while many want to believe he’s still the same guy he was in 2014, he’s been injured far too often for that to still be the case. Can he still be a difference-maker for the Browns, however? Sure. Those aren’t the same questions, and this is the one that needs to be answered. We know he’s no longer the Hall of Fame talent he once was, you can’t suffer all of those injuries to your legs and still retain that level of athleticism he once had but he could still be a good player.

The question is, will he be? More than likely Beckham’s going to get hurt, as he’s only played a full season twice. He’s missed over 35% of all possible games in his career due to injuries. He hasn’t had a double-digit touchdown season since 2016 and has only crossed the 1,000-yard threshold twice since then and even then, just barely.

Beckham and Landry both have a lot to prove and anyone who thinks that the team is going to be this great, vertical passing game, just because these two are on the field needs to realize that they aren’t the same players anymore.

We don’t know what they are anymore. They have to show us. Maybe they can recapture some of that Pro Bowl magic, maybe they can’t. We’ll have a better idea as the season progresses.