BEREA, Ohio — Odell Beckham Jr. came to the defense of Baker Mayfield on Thursday, calling some criticism of the embattled Cleveland Browns quarterback unfair, while noting others on the team need to play better.
“You can’t sit here and say it’s all on him. You have to take a look at everything going on around him,” Beckham said. “Obviously, he has to play better. I have to player better. … We all need to do better. Can’t sit back and be like, ‘It’s Baker’s fault.’ I feel like that’s the easiest thing for us to do. I’ve been in situations where one person is getting the blame, and the rest of the people are quiet to kind of stay out of the fire.
“I’m going to jump in the fire with him. I’ll be the first one. Some of these losses are on me. I need to be in the right place at the right time. I’m going to do better. And that’s what I plan to do the rest for the rest of the season.”
The Browns are 2-5, with Mayfield tied for the NFL lead with Tampa Bay’s Jameis Winston with 12 interceptions. Beckham, meanwhile, has only one touchdown catch in his first season with Cleveland and is averaging career lows with only 4.9 receptions and 69.7 yards per game.
Coming off a loss at New England, Mayfield got into a testy exchange Wednesday with a reporter before abruptly walking out of his media availability. Beckham said he’d already talked about the incident with Mayfield, referencing a Drake lyric as a lesson — “You only lose when you fight back” — while also offering understanding.
“Nobody likes to feel like you’re being poked at or prodded at, especially not a guy like that,” Beckham said. “I’ve been through that journey already, I’ve been through this fire. That’s a part of me that’s able to help him in a way. This is a kid who cares about football, cares about winning. Whatever people make him out to be just because of his personality — if we were winning and he was still doing it, we’d all be here laughing. Because we’re losing, we want to kind of poke at him a little.
“I’m going to be the first one here to defend him every single time. I’ve always got his back. I know what it’s like. I’ve been there. … I understand how we’re looking for the negative. But he wants to win. He’s upset he’s not winning, or he hasn’t done to the best of his ability, that’s upsetting. Just upsetting. We want to be great.”
Despite the disappointing start, Mayfield maintained Wednesday that he still believes the Browns will turn the season around. Beckham piggybacked on that, specifically noting that he and Mayfield will begin to click through the air soon enough.
“The more games we have together, the better we’ll be, but it’s time for us to turn it on,” Beckham said. “You have a highly regarded quarterback I think is a phenomenal player, and I just want be able to help him in every which way I can.
“I have no doubt in my mind that at some point in time it’s going to be everything that we all talked about.”
Source : ESPN
