Browns stay quiet at NFL trade deadline

The fax machine in Berea sat idle on Tuesday as the Cleveland Browns decided to stand pat as the NFL trade deadline came and went.

But that does not mean the noise surrounding the league’s most interesting 4-4 team did not reach an almost deafening decibel level.

The day began with Odell Beckham Sr. - Odell Beckham Jr.’s father - sharing a video on his Instagram account reportedly highlighting all the missed opportunities when Beckham Jr. was open on a pass pattern from Weeks 3 through 6.

Oddly enough, the video did not contain footage of OBJ’s drops, or the times he ran the incorrect route or gave up on a play. They must be saving that for the special edition director’s cut.

Later in the day, it was reported that the Browns were looking to deal Beckham to the New Orleans Saints, but with the Saints only having a little more than $1.2 million in cap space to work with, the teams could not agree on a solution to paying Beckham the remainder of his salary this year, according to ESPN’s Kimberley A. Martin.

Cleveland general manager Andrew Berry could have agreed to pick up a sizable portion of OBJ’s contract to get the deal done, the same way the Denver Broncos agreed to pay $9 million of linebacker Von Miller’s remaining $9.7 million salary as part of their trade with the Los Angeles Rams.

It appears that Berry could not wrap his mind around the idea of paying a wide receiver who ranks 150th in the league in receptions per target, 138th in receptions per route run, 136th in yards after the catch per reception and 31st in drop rate (per ESPN) to play for another team, however.

The Browns, most notably head coach Kevin Stefanski, now have to figure out how to mend some fences when the team returns to the practice field on Wednesday to prepare for Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

It was just a week ago that the Bengals were the darlings of the NFL, but a loss this past weekend to the New York Jets has Cincinnati sitting at 5-3, meaning if the Browns can find a way to win on Sunday they will pass the Bengals in the AFC North standings.

As dismal as things have gone for the Browns through the first eight weeks of the season, they only have one fewer win than the first-place Baltimore Ravens, and with five divisional games still on the schedule, the opportunity to turn the season around is still right in front of the team.

It is up to Stefanski, as well as some of the more mature leaders on the team, to put an end to the outside shenanigans that surfaced today and get everyone focused on the task at hand.

The season is not lost just yet, but the clock is definitely ticking, so the sooner the team can put today’s nonsense behind it the better.