The return of Odell Beckham Jr. from his near year-long absence due to an ACL injury was slated to be a game-changing one for the Cleveland Browns offense. But through a mere two games in the ongoing season, this has not yet come to fruition.
In the Browns' last two games, quarterback Baker Mayfield targeted Beckham 16 times and came away with a mere seven completions from them. On one of the incompletions, Mayfield failed to connect with Beckham during the late stages of the Browns' Week 4 win over the Minnesota Vikings. Even though Beckham was wide-open and would have had the chance to score a key late touchdown, Mayfield wound up underthrowing the veteran wideout.
Earlier this week, Mayfield took responsibility for the underthrow. And in speaking during a press conference on Thursday, Beckham downplayed the notion that there are stark on-field chemistry issues between himself and the Browns passer.
“I think that’s more of a story that's been created,” Beckham said. “I talk to him after the game, I talk to him during the game, I talk to him after meeting, play [Call of] Duty with him. We chop it up all the time. I don’t really know if there’s a… that word keeps being thrown around like, ‘chemistry' as much as just it’s the second game back.”
At this early stage in the season, Beckham is much confident that he will soon flourish with Mayfield. But as it stands, this is a task they are still currently working on.
“It’s just little things that are going to be worked out,” Beckham said. “Anybody who wants to be great and expects that level of greatness, is going to be not happy with the result if it isn’t what they were aiming to get. So it’s just something we’ve got to figure out.”
Mayfield and the Browns offense will have a monumental test in the upcoming Week 5 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers and their fifth-ranked pass defense (192.5 passing yards allowed per game).
The Browns are aiming to hold sole possession of first place in the AFC North.
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