Why it makes excellent sense for Cleveland Browns, OBJ to renegotiate his contract
If the Cleveland Browns like OBJ, creating some guarantees makes sense for both sides.
Although much has been written about the Cleveland Browns and star receiver Odell Beckham, Jr., generally the theme has been that he is a near $13 million albatross due to the guaranteed money the Browns must pay him in 2021, and less attention has been paid to his total Browns contract.
OBJ has a total of $45.75 million remaining on his Cleveland contract for the next three seasons. Many fans and writers cannot wait to get the guaranteed money out of the way and then summarily cut him. But wait just a minute. It may be that the Browns actually like the three-time Pro Bowler a lot more than the vocal minority who complain about him.
It may be that OBJ is happy with the Cleveland Browns as well. In that case, his total remaining three-year deal makes little sense for both sides. Let’s talk about fixing it.
Non-guaranteed money is bull feathers in this business, and OBJ has 15 million bull feathers in 2022 and another 15 million bull feathers in 2023.
It behooves agent Zeke Sandhu to get his client some guarantees for the next two years after this season. Hopefully, this season will be an injury-free one for the flamboyant receiver. But what if there’s another injury or some improbable non-football situation that takes him off the field?
It’s borderline negligent to leave $30 million unbacked smackers on the negotiating table. Sandhu can’t allow this to happen to his client unless Colin Cowherd’s secret source is correct and OBJ is just resolutely set on leaving Cleveland, and he is willing to risk blowing millions of dollars to get out of Cleveland.
Some people are just going to believe this one secret source no matter what, but this fan flat out does not believe it is true. Or, it may have been true one day when he was mad at coach Kitchens and general manager John Dorsey (easy to do), but those issues have been resolved.
The rest of the Dawg Pound sees that OBJ has been reunited with one of his best friends from Louisiana State in Jarvis Landry, not to mention the rest of the SEC Northern Campus. Baker Mayfield loves the guy, absolutely loves him and the feeling is clearly mutual.
Buzz from the clubhouse is that OBJ, though a unique personality, is a well-respected veteran leader. All the bad stuff comes from complaining fans or East Coast media and their secret sources, not from the team, not from Cleveland. So who are you going to believe?