Well NFL free agency is going strong, but wat might’ve come as a bit of a surprise was the trade that was made later in the day.
The New York Giants traded wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns. In return the Giants will receive a 2019 1st round pick, a 2019 3rd round pick and safety Jabrill Peppers. It’s clear that the Giants got much, much more that the Pittsburgh Steelers did when they traded Antonio Brown to the Oakland Raiders, but I guess the question still is; did they get enough in return for Beckham?
Beckham has missed some games with injuries the last two seasons, but he’s still considered one of the best if not the best wide receiver in the NFL. In 12 games last season Beckham put up 1052 yards on 77 catches with 6 touchdowns. With the exception of the last two seasons when injuries cost him a few games Beckham had been putting up 1300 plus yards and 10 plus touchdowns in his first three seasons.
In Cleveland Beckham will reunite with his former college teammate Jarvis Landry who was the Browns leading receiver last season. Landry had 81 receptions, 976 yards and 4 touchdowns. By adding Beckham it should draw coverage away from Landry and up and coming tight end David Njoku; who where Cleveland’s top two receivers last season.
The Browns have added two top offensive weapons in Beckham and running back Kareem Hunt. Of course will have to see what kind of suspension the NFL gives Hunt for his issue last season that the Kansas City Chiefs cut him for. Even without Hunt the Browns will still have Nick Chubb. Chubb took over as the #1 running back when Carlos Hyde was traded to the Jacksonville Jaquars and ended up leading the team in rushing with 996 yards. He also led Cleveland in rushing touchdowns with 8.
It looks like the Browns are set up for success after years of being the laughingstock of the NFL. If Baker Mayfield makes positive strides in his second year under center the Browns might even dare to say make the playoffs. If that does happen for Cleveland it will be the first time in 16 seasons that they’ll be in the post season.
It might be a little early for you to make a prediction, but with the Moves the Browns have made; do you think they’re a playoff team right now?
If you’re a fan of the New York Jets you woke up this morning to the news that the Jets have signed Le’Von Bell to a 4 year $52.5 million dollar deal. The deal includes $35 million dollars in guaranteed money.
As I’m sure everyone knows by now Bell sat out all of last season rather than sign the franchise tag which would’ve pad him $14.4 million dollar. It was the second straight year that bell had the franchise tag placed on him by is now former team the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Bell will be an interesting case study. There haven’t been a lot of players who have taken a year off and came back and played well, but Bell has some things going for him. Bell is jut 27 years old and while he did miss 10 games in 2015 due to injury; which I believe was a recurring hamstring injury. So Bell hasn’t suffered a serious injury.
Bell is definitely a workhorse type of running back and with his receiving skills he doesn’t have to be replaced in passing situations. Bell has three 1200 plus yard rushing seasons with 35 career rushing touchdowns and an average of 4.3 yards per carry in his career. Bell has caught over 80 passes twice in his career and has 312 career receptions for 2660 yards and 7 touchdowns.
With the addition of Bell the Jets backfield is quite crowded. Bilal Powell is a free agent; so you have to think the Jets will just let him sign elsewhere, but that leaves Isaiah Crowell, Trent Cannon and Elijah McGuire on the roster. You’d have to think that Crowell is probably the odd man out here and that he’ll end up being released. Cannon and McGuire are both 24 years old and should be able to contribute on special teams either as return men or just cover guys. At this point in his career I’m not sure if Crowell sees himself as a special teams player.
The Jets have been busy this off season. They re-sign two of their own players defensive end Henry Anderson and cornerback Darryl Roberts. They’ve added two free agent wide receivers Josh Bellamy and Jamison Crowder as well as signing linebacker C.J. Mosley. The Jets also acquired guard Kelechi Osemele from the Oakland Raiders in a trade over the weekend.
Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan has been very busy, but will have to see if these moves pay off and if the Jets have improved enough to compete with the New England Patriots in the AFC East.
How vastly different are the NFL off season and the MLB off season. The new NFL season hasn’t even officially started, but teams are allowed to negotiate with players and agreed to deal; so things more very quickly. Now in the MLB it’s a very, very different story. Free agency drags and drags to the point where I was sick and tired of hearing about it. Even right now with the season 15 days away; not counting those two games in Japan there are two top players Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrell that are still unsigned. I think the Major League Baseball could really learn something from the way the NFL off season is handle and bring some excitement to there off season instead of everyone just sitting around for months at a time with nothing to report. I seriously doubt that baseball will do anything or try to do anything about it, but if you’re a fan of both sports you can’t tell me that you enjoyed the MLB off season more than you’ve enjoyed this NFL off season. Don’t forget tat the NFL still has the draft coming up as well.
Please MLB learn something!
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