BEREA, Ohio — How do NFL players let off steam after an intense practice less than two weeks before the start of the regular season?
For some, it is a trip to the hot or cold tubs to rejuvenate the body, and others still prefer throwing on a pair of Bluetooth headphones and listening to their favorite music, but sometimes, something completely different from the norm is just what the doctor ordered.
Following Monday’s practice in Berea, Cleveland Browns receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry played a friendly, yet competitive game of table tennis in the workout room at the team’s training facility, and both showed off the kind of hand-eye coordination and quick reflexes that have made them two of the most talented pass catchers in the NFL.
All kidding and leisure aside, Monday was a big day for Beckham Jr.
After weeks of doing only individual drills because of a hip injury that Beckham Jr. admitted likely would not hold him out of a regular-season game, the multi-time Pro Bowl receiver returned to full-team drills for nearly a dozen plays with the starting offense during practice 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.”
“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. 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.”