Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. wasn’t on the team’s Week 6 injury report on Wednesday, but he’ll be on the one released after Thursday’s practice. Beckham was sent home Thursday morning by the team with an unspecified illness, according to Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski.
“We had to send Odell home today with an illness and with this day and age, just got to be so careful in this environment,” Stefanski said Thursday morning during his press conference. “So, just want to make sure we’re, we’re being proactive in that regard.”
Stefanski was immediately asked if Beckham’s illness might be COVID-19 related.
“You know, just with how the protocols are, just you have to be careful,” Stefanski said. “So, I don’t want to assume anything, but with all of our guys, we’ll make sure we just follow the protocols and just be safe.”
Stefanski went on to say that Beckham was feeling under the weather Thursday morning and that the team will have his most recent COVID test results back by Friday morning.
Beckham is obviously a big part of what the Browns do offensively so far this season as the veteran wide receiver leads the team in all receiving statistics through five games played with 21 catches for 294 yards and 3 touchdowns. On Thursday, Stefanski was asked what it would mean offensively should Beckham be unable to play on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers and he made it clear that he’s not ready to think about such a situation occurring
” I don’t know if I want to go there yet,” Stefanski said. “But I would tell you, obviously, and you’ve heard me say this before, he’s a big part of what we do. He works very hard throughout the week and so he’s doing a nice job.”
The Browns will have their hands full to close out this week if Beckham’s latest COVID test results come back positive. It could even possibly jeopardize Sunday’s game from being played. In the meantime, however, hopefully Beckham’s illness is just something minor such as pink-eye and it won’t ultimately prevent him from playing on Sunday against the Steelers.
