Given what they gave up to acquire him just last summer, it would have been a fairly shocking move if the Cleveland Browns agreed to a deal to send Odell Beckham Jr. to the Minnesota Vikings for draft picks.
Nevertheless, with no real NFL news of note (unless you count the first player in the league testing positive for COVID-19), the internet was abuzz with trade talk about Beckham after WFAN 660’s Marc Malusis reported Wednesday the Browns were in discussions with the Vikings.
Even though the rumored compensation for Beckham, 2021 second- and fifth-round picks, made little sense because it was less than the Vikings received for dealing away a lesser receiver in Stefon Diggs, reports were coming from all angles that the deal was going down. Things reached the point that Cleveland’s chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta had to address the rumors during a conference call with reporters.
“It’s frustrating a little bit,” DePodesta said of the trade speculation, per ESPN. “I think it’s pretty clear we’re trying to build at this point. We’re really building around a core of players that we think have a chance to be a championship-caliber core, and the idea that we would take away from that core at this moment just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and really [is] not something we’re exploring at all.”
Unsaid in DePodesta’s statement is that the Browns have made so many poor decisions over the years that, even though it was bogus, the notion that the team was going to deal its 27-year-old star receiver for draft picks had some merit given the organization’s history.
The theory also held some water because Cleveland hired former Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski as head coach after firing Freddie Kitchens following last season. Regardless, despite Cleveland’s track record of making bad moves, it sounds as if new general manager Andrew Berry isn’t going to get rid of Beckham for peanuts.
But, being that it is the Browns, you can’t really fault anyone for thinking that he might have been willing to.
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