Odell Beckham needs to stop talking about the Giants

Odell Beckham is right about being in a better situation with the Browns, but it’s time for him to stop talking about the Giants. 

Going silent on social media was a solid step forward for Odell Beckham. Unfortunately, that silence didn’t extend to interviews in Europe. The controversial wide receiver elected to, once again, bash the Giants during his time with the British media.

Specifically, the talented Browns’ wideout articulated his belief that he was never going to be able to reach his “full potential” if he stayed with the Giants. From a factual perspective, he’s not wrong. Dave Gettleman’s front office is one of the most dysfunctional units in the NFL. The uncertainty hanging over the Eli Manning/Daniel Jones quarterback battle in New York was almost certainly going to hamper Beckham’s production if he stayed in the Big Apple.

The factual validity of his statements aren’t the point here. Instead, the focus should be on why Beckham feels like he needs to comment on the Giants at all. The franchise did stand by him during some tumultuous moments in his career. They even gave him a big pay-day before ultimately electing to trade him to Cleveland.

At this point in time, the smart thing for Beckham to do would be to focus on his work with the Browns. Expectations haven’t been this high around his new franchise in decades. Beckham should be doing everything possible to deliver a big season for his new employers.

Keeping his focus on the Browns would certainly increase the probability of him turning in a career season. Instead of keeping an eye on Manning and the mediocre group of passers in New York, his sole focus should be building rapport with Baker Mayfield. Then again, that might be easier if Mayfield wasn’t spending his spare time sniping back and forth with collegiate quarterbacks.

It might be unreasonable to expect Beckham to stay out of the headlines altogether, but the Browns need to convince him that his public comments to the media need to remain focused on his new team for the foreseeable future.

Every moment he spends reflecting on his controversial past with the Giants is a moment he’s not devoting to helping Cleveland make a return to the postseason in 2019. There are a lot of ways the promising Browns season could go wrong, they can’t afford for a distracted Odell Beckham to be the thing that derails Freddie Kitchen’s first season in charge.