Situation with Odell Beckham and Cleveland Browns becomes less clear

Reports have surfaced that Odell Beckham had requested a trade from the Cleveland Browns well before this week. Who should you believe?

One thing is clear, the days of Odell Beckham playing for the Cleveland Browns are over. After a complete disaster of a week, OBJ and the Browns are working on the final details of his release. Those details have not surfaced, but the remaining chess game is keeping his salary low enough that he likely gets claimed on waivers and does not get to choose his next destination.

What’s still not clear is how this situation escalated so quickly. A video surfaced on Monday morning posted by OBJ’s father, pointing out several times his son was open, and Baker Mayfield failed to get him the ball. The red flags instantly went up, but I personally didn’t think this would end up the resolution.

Now Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com is reporting that Beckham had requested a trade multiple times including this offseason, and directly after the Steelers game. If this is true, I’m beginning to seriously question the way the organization handled this situation.

It’s extremely unfortunate the way things ended, but did Andrew Berry really think he was going to beat OBJ and the media? Did he really think he could force him to want to be in Cleveland? I hate the way this went down, but at some point, you must cut your losses.

The trade market would have been poor at best, but converting his salary to bonus and releasing him – does it get worse than this scenario for the Cleveland Browns?

Berry, Kevin Stefanski, Beckham, and his agent will likely be the only ones to know the true story, but if the trade request was made, the Browns have themselves to blame for the hole this has dug.

Last thing to think about. When OBJ wants information to get out, has he ever struggled before to not get his point out to the public? I struggle to believe if he wanted out, he wouldn’t have made it more public before the video posted by his father.