Trading Odell Beckham Jr. unlikely, despite Tom Brady’s wishes

Another day, another Odell Beckham Jr. trade rumor

It’s silly season, and that means silly Cleveland Browns trade rumors a week before free agency opens.

Today’s OBJ trade iteration involves Odell Beckham Jr. Again.

Apparently, Tom Brady wants to add the dynamic receiver to an already stacked skill position room:

When the GOAT wants something, he gets it, so the Browns should be netting multiple first-round picks along with Chris Godwin in a sign-and-trade shortly.

In reality, there is an argument to be made for trading Beckham. His injury history is growing more concerning, and he has been a disappointment over his 22 games in Cleveland. He’s set to count more than $15 million against the salary cap this season, but would cost the team nothing to trade.

However, his underperformance isn’t entirely his fault; in fact, he got open at a ridiculous rate in 2020. The problem was that Baker Mayfield rarely looked his direction, and even when he did target him, over half of his passes to Beckham were uncatchable. Beckham has yet to play with good Mayfield, let alone the elite version that showed up from Week 13 onward.

Beckham is still one of the league’s most dynamic receivers, even if he hasn’t been able to show it much recently. He is the only legitimate threat in the Browns WR room, and would need to be replaced with a similar level of player if moved.

Cleveland will not be trading Beckham for anything less than he is truly worth, and based on his recent injuries and subpar production, it’s highly unlikely another team offers what Beckham is actually worth. So, a deal is not realistic.

That is, unless Brady has a LeBron James-level hold over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers front office. That’s probably not the case, but if it were, perhaps there is potential for a trade. The Bucs are in full-on win-now mode, as they have only about 17 more years until Brady retires, so in their eyes, the impact that Beckham could make would be worth more than the 32nd overall pick, for example. Tampa Bay is currently about $12 million under the salary cap, so creating the necessary space to absorb Beckham’s contract would not be difficult.

Trading Odell Beckham Jr. for peanuts is not smart. But the Bucs may be willing to offer quite a bit more than any other team would, and that means the Browns should at least listen. They would of course need to replace him, but armed with an extra $15 million in cap space and more draft capital, in an offseason that boasts a surplus of receiver talent, that wouldn’t be too hard to accomplish.

Is it likely? No. Is it possible? Of course. Andrew Berry and company will turn over every rock in an attempt to improve the team, and this is one potential avenue for doing that.