BEREA, Ohio — Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. missed full-team drills for much of training camp because of a minor hip issue that he acknowledged would not be enough to hold him out of a regular-season game.
However, Beckham Jr.’s return to the full-team drills came on Monday, as he ran nearly a dozen plays with the first-team offense during practice at the team’s Berea headquarters ahead of Thursday’s preseason finale against the Detroit Lions at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland.
“He looked good,” Browns coach Freddie Kitchens said of Beckham Jr. “It’s good to have him back out. We’ve been working on the side with him with other things. It’s just a natural progression, so it was good to have him back out.”
Although Beckham Jr. missed several weeks of work with the full-team starting offense, Kitchens is not concerned about having less than 14 days to develop chemistry with quarterback Baker Mayfield.
“They’ve been working through the whole camp as it is,” Kitchens said.
“Just because he wasn’t in team drills doesn’t mean that they weren’t working. It’s fairly easy. You learn where to line up, you learn what to do, you learn the depth and the area you’re supposed to be in, and you’ve got it just about figured out. I think he’s a smart guy and he’s coming along.”
There is more than just individual work at practice that gives Kitchens confidence Beckham Jr. will ready to play when the regular season kicks off against the Tennessee Titans at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday, September 8, and it comes in the form of a Pro Bowl pedigree.
Over 59 regular-season games, including 56 starts, in five years with the New York Giants, Beckham Jr. turned 622 targets into 390 receptions for 5,476 yards and 44 touchdowns. Beckham Jr. averaged 92.8 yards per game, including a league-best 108.8 during the 2014 season.
Beckham Jr. has put four 1,000-yard and three double-digit touchdown seasons on his resume since being selected with a first-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft out of Louisiana State University.
Last season, Beckham Jr. recorded a 77-catch, 1,052-yard, six-touchdown effort for the Giants.
Beckham Jr. was a three-time Pro Bowl selection (2014-2016) and two-time Second Team All-Pro honoree (2015-2016) during his five years with the Giants.
“We haven’t even gotten into game-planning and stuff like that, but they’ll definitely be on top of their game when we start game-planning and stuff like that rather than just useless things that don’t really matter,” Kitchens said.
“At the end of the day, it’s exactly what I said, where to be, where to line up, getting to your depth, and then, catching the ball. After that, you get the ball in his hands and see what he can do.”