Browns’ WR Beckham limited by hip injury
Odell Beckham Jr., who is partly responsible for all the hype surrounding the team, is having trouble staying on the field.
All of WESTFIELD, IND. — the screaming Odell Beckham Jr. fans in the stands at Grand Park were disappointed Wednesday when the superstar receiver was held out of team drills with a hip injury, but Freddie Kitchens indicated it’s nothing serious.
“He’s got a little bit of something going on but we expect him back pretty soon,” Kitchens said after the joint practice with the Colts.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported it’s a hip pointer, but it’s actually a different hip injury, a team source told cleveland.com.
Kitchens wouldn’t rule Beckham out for the second preseason game against the Colts on Saturday afternoon, but it’s doubtful. He said Beckham “probably could play” but presumably meant if it were a real game.
As it is, Beckham will sit out Saturday’s 4 p.m. game. On Wednesday, he participated in individual drills only, looking quick and agile running through cones. But he bowed out during one- on-ones vs. the Colts defen- sive backs, and didn’t do any 7-on-7s or 11-on-11s.
Will it be a challenge to get him back up to speed?
“I think he’ll be ready to go mentally,” Kitchens said. “He is ready to go mentally. We’ve got to wait and get him ready to go physically, but he’ll be there.”
Is he confident Beckham and quarterback Baker Mayfield can still get on the same page with the opener against the Titans on Sept. 8 just over three weeks away?
“Yeah, I’m pretty confident,” he said with a smile, likely because of the highlight-reel plays the two have already connected on this camp.
Wednesday marked at least the sixth time in 15 practices that Beckham was held out of all or most of the 11-on11 periods. He also sat out Thursday night’s 30-10 victory over the Redskins in the preseason opener and missed one full day with an illness. The last time he participated in a team drill in pads was Day 11 of camp on Aug. 6.
He did par t icipate in 11-on-11s in the non-padded practice on Friday, the day after the Redskins game.
The multiple absences from team drills follow Beck- ham skipping all of volun- tary OTAs and a minicamp while adjusting to the trade from New York to Cleveland.
Beckham says when he gets his timing down with Mayfield, “it will be scary.”Is Mayfield equally confident that he’ll have enough time to develop chemistry with Beckham?
“We have the next-man-up mentality,” Mayfield said after practice. “Obviously, he’s going to be ready to go when it’s time to play. Him sitting out and doing some of these things mentally is him getting used to the offense and seeing different things and hearing us communi- cating it.