There's plenty of positive vibes coming from the Cleveland Browns this training camp, especially surrounding the addition of receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and what he could do to the offense with second-year quarterback Baker Mayfield.
While Beckham's potential in Cleveland is tantalizing, a checkered injury history also comes with the star receiver. Dating back to 2014, Beckham has missed 21 games due to injury, the most among all No. 1 wide receivers (by average annual salary) in that timeframe. He also missed the final four games of the 2018 regular season with an undisclosed quad injury. Given that past, there's always cause for concern whenever the three-time Pro Bowl receiver's name is connected to an injury; like he is now with Dan Graziano of ESPN reporting Beckham is dealing with an undisclosed hip injury.
Per Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, Beckham didn't partake in team drills on Wednesday, marking the sixth time in 15 practices that he's been held out or limited in 11-on-11 drills this summer. The last time he did work in team drills was back on August 6.
The hip injury is considered to be a minor one and head coach Freddie Kitchens didn't seem too concerned about it while speaking to reporters following Cleveland's joint practice with the Colts on Wednesday.
"He's got a little bit of something going on but we expect him back pretty soon,'' he said, via Cleveland.com.
Kitchens wouldn't give much of an indication whether or not Beckham would make his Browns debut and suit up in their Week 2 exhibition with Indy on Saturday, but did note that he "probably could play," seemingly indicating that he could go if it were a regular-season contest.
As for how Beckham is grasping the offense, Kitchens likes what he sees so far.
"I think he'll be ready to go mentally,'' he said. "He is ready to go mentally. We've got to wait and get him ready to go physically, but he'll be there."
As the Browns are realizing (and his former team in the Giants knew all too well), injury risk is something that simply comes with Beckham, along with that immense talent. Right out of the gate of his career, Beckham's debut was delayed a month due to a hamstring injury before having his emergence as a star in the league. He also suffered a season-ending ankle fracture in 2017 and a bruised quad ended his season early last year as well.
This injury ultimately seems inconsequential to Beckham's status for the start of the regular season, but it does serve as a reminder to the Browns that they aren't exactly dealing with IronMan here. It's best to proceed with caution.
