Odell Beckham’s next NFL team must use his talents…

(AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

This deep incompletion on a switch release with Schwartz against the Vikings in Week 4 is pretty decent proof that, whatever went wrong with Beckham and the Browns, talent on the receiver’s part is not the problem. He can still embarrass some of the league’s best defenders when given the optimal schematic opportunities. On this play, Beckham was in the right slot with Schwartz outside.  When Schwartz took cornerback Cameron Dantzler out on the deep over, it was up to safety Harrison Smith, one of the best in the NFL, to work Beckham through his route.

This, he did not do. Beckham just demolished Smith on a nasty out-and-up, and had Beckham not stumbled on the turf, this would have been an easy six.

“They were very close,” offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said after the Vikings game of the Mayfield-Beckham deep connection. “Really, if you complete two of those throws, Odell is well over 100 yards, and everybody is not saying a word. That is tough. Deep balls are tough to complete. Your completion percentage is lower on those, but we were just off a hair. The one ball he had down the right side, he had to step up and maneuver some pressure, which was a tough throw, that one was close.”

They were also close on this play. This time, Beckham was the iso receiver to Mayfield’s front side, and Schwartz made it more complicated with a deep over from trips to the other side. Smith was in a bind, Beckham beat Dantzler… and Mayfield underthrew the ball.

Beckham’s last target as a member of the Browns was this deep post late in the game. Beckham had an easy opening downfield, and Mayfield couldn’t hit him in stride. Plays like this tend to validate Beckham’s frustration, and the questions about the Browns’ passing game remain, with or without Beckham.

“I would tell you first and foremost, I need to do a better job,” Stefanski said after the Steelers game. “I really do. I need to make sure that I put him in position to make some plays, and I did not do a good enough job certainly yesterday. Having said that, he gets a lot of attention from the defense. There were a bunch of plays where the safety is cheating to him, and that opens up opportunities for other guys. I think of an early third down that we had where the post safety stayed to the boundary side because he was cheating towards Odell, and we hit a big play to  Jarvis [Landry]. His effect on our offense is there, but I do need to do a better job of making sure that the ball makes its way into his hands.”

The “Beckham as a decoy” thing has had legs all season, and while it’s been effective, it was also on Stefanski to create opportunities for Beckham to also get the ball, and he really never did that in a meaningful sense.