Freddie Kitchens sounds ready for Odell Beckham’s arrival

One of the biggest storylines for the Cleveland Browns during the offseason program has been the whereabouts of wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

The team has held nine Organized Team Activities over the past few weeks and Beckham, who was acquired in a trade at the beginning of March, has only been in attendance for one of them.

When asked on Thursday what Beckham has been missing during his time away from Berea, head coach Freddie Kitchens was pretty blunt in his response, according to Nate Ulrich at ohio.com:

“A lot — the offense.”

While Kitchens, offensive coordinator Todd Monken and general manager John Dorsey have all mentioned in recent weeks how they would like it if every player was in attendance at every workout, this is the first time that Kitchens has come out and really shown a bit of frustration over Beckham’s absence.

Beckham is not the only player to skip out on some of the voluntary workouts - Ulrich pointed out that fellow wide receivers Jarvis Landry and Antonio Callaway have not been at every session, and safety Damarious Randall, tight end David Njoku and defensive ends Myles Garrett and Olivier Vernon, among others, have also been absent at times.

But Beckham is the focal point at the moment and will continue to be so until he starts to show up on a consistent basis, which should begin next week when the Browns hold their mandatory minicamp from Tuesday through Thursday.

Hopefully it won’t take Beckham long to re-acquaint himself with a group of teammates he has only seen sporadically in the past few months.