Nearly three months after trading Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns, the New York Giants still find themselves answering questions about the superstar wide receiver.
Beckham made headlines recently when he told reporters after a minicamp practice with the Browns that he would have to get used to playing with a quarterback whose arm is as strong as Baker Mayfield's.
“I'm also going to have to get adjusted to the speed, because he's got an arm,” he said of Cleveland's franchise signal-caller, per ESPN's Jordan Ranaan. “He's throwing that ball hard. Just catching him from the first day, it was like, ‘Wow, this is completely different.'”
Many football followers took Beckham's praise of Mayfield as an implicit shot at longtime Giants quarterback Eli Manning, whose arm strength seems to have significantly deteriorated in recent years compared to his prime. New York coach Pat Shurmur pushed back on that narrative, though, insisting Beckham was merely expressing excitement about his new playing situation rather than lamenting his old one.
“I would probably think of it as less a criticism of Eli and more … [Beckham's] getting comfortable with his team. He's around his teammates. He's around his new community. I'm happy for him. He's getting comfortable with his guys,” he said. “I wouldn't say it's criticism of Eli. It's more, hey, he likes who he is playing with.”
The Giants dealt Beckham, a three-time Pro Bowler, to the Browns in March in exchange for safety Jabrill Peppers and first and third-round picks in the NFL draft.
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