Odell Beckham, Jr. has subpar stat projection for 2021

ESPN has released their annual fantasy stat projections and they don’t seem to think Odell Beckham, Jr. will be elite for the Cleveland Browns

It seems like just about every projection for the Cleveland Browns in 2021 has been favorable — or at least the team projections have been. That’s understandable given the success they had in 2020 which was the first season under head coach Kevin Stefanski.

While more success is predicted this year, some of the individual expectations aren’t where we’re used to seeing them. For example, ESPN released their latest 2021 fantasy projections and Odell Beckham, Jr. finds himself with a rather modest line according to what they expect.

OBJ, once considered in the top-five for wideouts in the league, is currently the 28th wide receiver in the ESPN rankings. As for the predicted line, they have him hauling in 69 receptions for 964 yards and eight touchdowns.

Of course, there’s a lot going into these modest (at least for OBJ’s standards) projections. One is the simple fact that he’s coming off a torn ACL which was suffered in Week 7 last season. The other, is that he wasn’t doing exceptionally well in the stats department before the injury.

Beckham finished with 319 yards in what is being called seven games, but he was hardly on the field for that seventh game. But even if we trim his games down to six, that still means he was averaging just 53.2 yards per game which would have given him 850 for the season.

His three touchdowns in six games were better, and that projects to eight on the season, but still, that’s not what we’re used to seeing from OBJ. Heck, even in 2019 under Freddie Kitchens, he had 1,035 yards.

Still, the truth is that even with that 1,000-yard season in 2019, OBJ has not been a huge hit for the Browns and until he proves he can be his old self, chances are he will be doubted.

The good news is, he looks healthy in recent workout videos and the offense is much better than it was before he got hurt. Early on in 2020, there were clearly some growing pains and Beckham suffered because of that.

In 2021, as long as he’s healthy and Baker Mayfield is still playing lights out, OBJ should be able to eclipse the numbers from ESPN.