Cleveland Browns: 4 most underhyped players in 2021
By Randy Gurzi
1. Odell Beckham, Jr., Wide Receiver
Another player who is returning from an injury this season is wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr. In Week 7, OBJ tore his ACL and as fate would have it, the offense instantly turned things around when he was out. Baker Mayfield suddenly looked comfortable in the pocket and he was hitting his targets with ease.
Of course, this led to speculation that the offense was better with OBJ which isn’t entirely true. Yes, they played better after he was out but taking an elite player off the field doesn’t instantly improve those who are left behind.
What actually happened with Cleveland is we saw the proverbial light bulb come on for Mayfield and the offense. Remember, this was their seventh game in a new system under rookie head coach Kevin Stefanski — and for Mayfield, this was already his fourth head coach and fourth offensive coordinator in just his third NFL season. If that’s not enough reason for a slow start, the Browns also had to do their offseason programs virtually which limited how many live reps they got together.
Naturally, things were slow and one of the problems was Baker and OBJ being on different pages. Beckham was still torching defenders but Mayfield was either missing the throw or not seeing him altogether for whatever reason.
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Looking ahead to 2021, OBJ is back and Mayfield is in full control of this offense. Rather than thinking about how good this offense was after the ACL injury suffered by Beckham, we should be discussing how good he can be with an offense that was clicking on all cylinders but lacked one thing — elite speed downfield. And that’s exactly what he brings.