For the first six weeks of the season, Browns receiver Odell Beckham Jr. appeared on the injury report with a hip injury. For the first Wednesday practice after the bye week, Beckham has no hip injury. However, he has a groin injury.
Beckham fully participated in practice on Wednesday with a groin injury disclosed by the team.
Groin injury or not, the Patriots surely will be determined to take Beckham away on Sunday. And Beckham knows that from past games against coach Bill Belichick.
Beckham told reporters that he expects Belichick to say before the game, “I hope you enjoy today, because there’s not going to be much for you.”
The first-year Brown still wants more than he has had. He said Wednesday that “it’s definitely time for me to be more for this team, do more for this team, whatever it is I need to do.”
That won’t be easy for Beckham or the rest of the Browns on Sunday, and Beckham knows it. He gushed repeatedly about Belichick and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on Wednesday, making it perhaps the most over-the-top public lovefest from an opponent since twice-former Vikings receiver Randy Moss in 2010, whose post-game praise of Belichick was followed by a next-day release by Minnesota.
Although Beckham isn’t in danger of being released or traded by the Browns, Beckham made no bones about wanting to play for the Patriots in the past. While he said all the right things about being with the Browns, the nonchalance with which Beckham spoke so glowingly about New England sent a clear message: He would have loved to have been traded there at some point, and he likely would have no objections if it happened at some point in the future.