As he rehabilitates from offseason surgery, Cleveland Browns star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is predicting big things in 2020.
“Right now what I’m trying to do is hit the reset button,” Beckham said in a video posted to his YouTube channel Monday. “Being able to just get everything fixed. Shoulder, arms, back, everything aligned, functional, moving properly, so, I can begin training to be ready for the season.
“I would honestly say this is probably going to be one of my best seasons. Bigger, stronger, faster — this my time.”
Beckham underwent surgery Jan. 21 to address a hip and groin injury that plagued him throughout one of his worst seasons last year. In his video, he went into more detail about an injury that began in the summer and only worsened.
“So last year I was training in June and July and I was kind of just feeling stuff around the groin area, abs and stuff like that,” he recalled. “My third week of training camp, I tear a little piece of my ab. So before the season, I kind of had the hernia thing going on. Sports hernia is what they call it. End up at the end of the season, torn abductor, torn rectus abdominis on the right.
“So pretty much, I was just f—– up the whole year, I really didn’t try and say anything about it. Probably one of the worst surgeries I’ve ever had. Recovery’s going well. Guess I’m really just trying to put my body back together. I’ve been playing for 23 years, so for me, I’m trying to put it all back together in seven months.”
While playing through those injuries, Beckham posted the worst statistical season of his career, save his injury shortened one with the New York Giants in 2017. Beckham did go over 1,000 yards receiving, but he also struggled to develop a chemistry with quarterback Baker Mayfield and ended with only four touchdown grabs, as the Browns went 6-10 to extend the NFL’s longest playoff drought to 18 years.
Since the season ended, Beckham has been a constant subject of trade rumors, especially with the Browns overhauling their front office and coaching staff. But both new Browns general manager Andrew Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski have downplayed that possibility and continue to maintain Beckham is in Cleveland’s plans for 2020 and beyond. Browns chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta, one of the few holdovers from the previous regime in Cleveland, even called the Beckham rumors “frustrating” leading up to last month’s draft.
“I think it’s pretty clear we’re trying to build at this point,” he said. “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.”