CHANGE OF SCENERY
Odell Beckham Jr. poised to reach full potential in Cleveland after wearing out welcome in New York,
New Browns superstar Odell Beckham Jr. has yet to reach his full potential as an NFL wide receiver, and he has declared he wouldn’t have found the peak of his game had he remained with the New York Giants.
Browns receivers coach Adam Henry also has said he’s convinced Beckham’s best football is ahead of him. The plan is for Beckham to become the best version of himself in Cleveland after general manager John Dorsey acquired him in March in a blockbuster trade.
If it happens, the Browns could very well have the No. 1 receiving corps in the league, with Jarvis Landry, Antonio Callaway and Rashard Higgins joining Beckham as the group’s household names.
Beckham’s chemistry with quarterback Baker Mayfield will be paramount, though. Their development will be one of the top storylines of training camp, which opens Thursday.
Beckham’s lack of public support for Giants quarterback Eli Manning generated headlines last year. Beckham let it be known he wanted more deep targets from Manning.
The good news is Mayfield has shown a penchant for attacking defenses vertically, and his deepball accuracy has been superb.
ProFootballFocus.com defines a big-time throw as a passing attempt on the highest end of both difficulty and value in its grading system. Mayfield had more big-time throws last season as a rookie than Manning has had in a season since 2012.
Mayfield’s passer rating on throws of 20 yards or more last season was 107.6. He also had the third-best accuracy rate (51.4 percent) on deep passes last year. Manning’s passer ratings the past three seasons on those throws were 86.7 in 2018, 38.8 in 2017 and 60.8 in 2016, according to PFF.
Beckham, 26, had what PFF deems an accurate pass (on frame or in stride) thrown his way on just 50 percent of his targets last year. He had only three dropped passes on 80 catchable passes.
Mayfield ranked fourth in the NFL in accurate throw rate during the second half of last season, trailing only Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, Drew Brees of
continued from C1 the New Orleans Saints and Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Even without Beckham consistently getting deep, accurate targets from Manning, the three-time Pro Bowl receiver often dominated the past five seasons when healthy. His five-year PFF receiving grade ranks sixth among the 47 receivers with at least 2,000 routes run during the span. His 2.4 yards per route run is fifth best among receivers with at least 500 routes run in the past five seasons.
Last season, Beckham’s overall PFF grade ranked fourth among 117 qualifying receivers. Landry was 33rd, Higgins 57th and Callaway 79th.
Health is always crucial to a football team’s success, but with Beckham, it’s the elephant in the room because he has missed 16 games the past two seasons. He had 77 receptions for 1,052 yards and six touchdowns last season before sitting out the final four games with a bruised quadriceps. A fractured ankle limited him to four games in 2017, the only season of his career he finished without 1,000 receiving yards. He had 25 catches for 302 yards and three TDs.
If he remains available to play, talk about the Browns having the most talented receiving corps in the league wouldn’t be hyperbole like it was last summer when the oft-suspended Josh Gordon uttered it a few months before Dorsey cut him.—
A four-time Pro Bowler, Landry, 26, ranks second in missed tackles forced by a receiver since 2014, per PFF. Beckham is third in the category. Golden Tate of the Giants leads the category.
Landry’s connection with Mayfield took time to build partly because Mayfield didn’t receive any first-team snaps in last year’s training camp and didn’t start until Week 4. In the first half of the season, Landry caught 55 passes (24 for first downs) on 92 targets. In the second half, Landry compiled 26 receptions (20 for first downs) on 45 targets. He finished with 81 catches for 976 yards, both team bests, and four TDs.
Although Beckham and Landry are the starters, Callaway, 22, and Higgins, 24, should have opportunities to dole out damage to defenses, too.
A 2018 fourth-round draft pick, Callaway had 43 catches for 586 yards and a teamhigh five receiving TDs as a rookie. Of Callaway’s 43 catches, 27 went for first downs, tying tight end David Njoku for second on the team behind Landry’s 44. Callaway’s 287 deep receiving yards ranked fourth among rookies, per PFF.
Despite missing three games with an injured knee, Higgins posted 39 catches for 572 yards and four TDs after getting in sync with Mayfield during the quarterback’s first NFL camp. When Mayfield played, Higgins caught 78.6 percent of his targets with a 126.9 passer rating on those throws. His reception rate on deep passes (69.2 percent) ranked third in the league last season, trailing only Tyler Lockett of the Seattle Seahawks and Michael Thomas of the Saints.
Higgins has incentive to continue to improve. Dorsey retained him this year as a restricted free agent, but he’s scheduled to become unrestricted on the open market in March.
The competition for a roster spot or two at the bottom of the receiving depth chart appears to be wide open entering camp. Damion Ratley, a 2018 sixth-round pick, Derrick Willies, Jaelen Strong, Blake Jackson and undrafted rookies Ishmael Hyman, Dorian Baker and Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi, a return specialist, are among those in the mix.