Wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr. was on the New York Giants at this time of year while defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was with the Cleveland Browns. Now Beckham is in Cleveland, and the Browns are set to take on Williams’ new team, the New York Jets. While the cities have changed, Beckham’s spite for Williams hasn’t.
The wide receiver has accused the him of authorizing cheap shots against him during the preseason in 2017 while he was the defensive coordinator of the Browns. When he was asked by reporters if he expected Williams to have the Jets’ defensive backs play him in tight man coverage, he offered a broader answer.
“The only thing I’m buying is probably just gotta watch out for the cheap shots and the dirty hits and all of the things that he likes to teach. That’s pretty much all we gotta watch out for”, Beckham said. Beyond that, he said, he didn’t expect to see much man-to-man coverage, but rather two-high safety looks.
He went on to say that current Browns teammates who were on the team at the time of that preseason game between the Giants and Cleveland in 2017 informed the wide receiver that Williams authorized the hit.
“I’ve had players on this team telling me that that is what he was telling them to do”, he told reporters yesterday. “Take me out of the game. And it’s preseason. So you just know who he is. Just the man. That’s the man”.
Williams’ defense did manage to inflict injury about Beckham in that game, with former Browns cornerback Brien Boddy-Calhoun undercutting the wide receiver, hitting him in the left leg and giving him an ankle injury, which caused him to go airborne, hitting his helmet on the turf as well.
That injury lingered, and he believes that his attempt to return from it too early contributed to his ultimately breaking the ankle and causing him to miss the remainder of the season. He also believes it contributed to his suffering a torn quad last season as well that cost him time.
“I gave them all I had even though I know I was three weeks out”, he said about coming back too quickly. “I probably came back three weeks too early because [the Giants] lost the first game of the season last year and I felt the pressure to be able to come out there and do what I can to help the team. I just came back too early”.
Beckham, who was already dealing with a hip injury through most of the summer, caught seven passes for 71 yards in the season-opening loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday in his first game as a member of the Browns after they acquired him via trade back in March.
