Odell Beckham, Jr. walks away from millions to leave Cleveland

While the national media deplores Andrew Berry’s handling of the finances of Odell Beckham, Jr’s finances, in reality, he has done a brilliant job. 

Odell Beckham, Jr. left $30 million of money on the table for 2022 and 2023 when he left the Cleveland Browns and an additional $3 million dollars in 2021. While the national media criticized the Browns front office and general manager Andrew Berry for not trading OBJ  before the deadline, there was no market for a $15 million per year, injury-prone player who was dropping a pass almost every game in his latest comeback.

Recovering $33 million dollars to invest in offensive linemen was a prudent move for the Browns.

According to Jason Fitzgerald of overthecap.com, what they probably did with OBJ’s contract was to convert $3 million of OBJ’s salary to a roster bonus. Since he wasn’t on the Browns roster, they don’t have to pay that money. They probably do have to pay him $4.25 million of his 2021 salary, one way or the other.

How much are the Rams going to pay him on his new deal? It would have been nice to have a multi-year contract at $15 million per year with some bonus money to boost him up for this season. That’s not what happened, apparently. In order to just break even for 2021, he needs about $3.85 million to break even, give or take, according to Fitzgerald, correcting the numbers for the 17-game season.

If that doesn’t happen, receiving $1.4 million or less from the Rams would allow him to keep termination pay rights for 2022.

Termination pay is the veteran player’s right to get paid for the entire year once he makes the team, and basically prevents teams from cutting off a player’s pay in mid-season. If he makes too much money after being cut by the Browns, that counts as termination pay for 2021 and he would lose the right to claim it in 2022, which would be a major potential penalty. Jason Fitzgerald is the only person in the football universe who thinks of things like this, by the way.

Beckham needs to showcase his talents in the remaining weeks of the season and the playoffs, in order to be rewarded with a huge megadeal for what he and his agent think that he is worth. It’s going to happen that way, but that will have to be our little secret for now.

What is happening at 76 Lou Groza Blvd is that the Browns are able to reward deserving players like Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller. This is right on so many levels. The Browns are built on the big offensive linemen, really, not the high-strung wide receivers, no matter how mega-talented they might be.

Cleveland can use some wide receivers who are vicious blockers like Donovan Peoples-Jones and even Anthony Schwartz has started throwing some blocks. The tight ends like David Njoku, Austin Hooper, and young Harrison Bryant are getting the job done, thank you.

Odell Beckham, Jr. did what he felt he needed to do. He dropped a half dozen passes this year and the team lost confidence in him. He refused to accept responsibility for that and work on his fundamentals.

Instead, he wanted to blame the quarterback. He walked away from $33 million dollars, give or take, in potential earnings for the next two-plus seasons. If you want to say he is a genius for making his move and Cleveland’s GM got taken to the cleaners, fine. Clevelanders don’t see it that way.

But OBJ is probably not going to get that money back. Just a hunch.

The Cleveland Browns are better off spending that money on Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller. Thanks, OBJ, you contributed more than you can ever realize.