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BEREA, Ohio – Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said Wednesday wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. will not play this week when his team returns home to face the Texans at FirstEnergy Stadium.
“I’m going to keep Odell out this week,” Stefanski said ahead of Wednesday’s practice. “I just felt like it was the right thing to do. Last week I thought we had a good plan, he was close, worked really hard on the side, but it seemed to me that it made more sense to have some clarity at the start of the week from a game and practice planning.
Beckham will still be training during the week and was on the pitch doing individual drills during the media portion of practice on Wednesday.
Stefanski said there had been no setback with Beckham.
“He works really hard. I think you see him working hard, ”Stefanski said. “I’m not going to put a timeline on it, but I think the guy is working to make it happen.”
Beckham was a play decision on Sunday against the Chiefs and was ultimately inactive after being listed as questionable on the final pre-game injury report.
“He trained before the game and didn’t feel like he could go much further,” Stefanski said after Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs, “so we thought it was the right one thing to do to keep it idle and we have four wide receivers up.
Stefanski said Wednesday that preparing for the Chiefs game was something going on in the NFL, training guys who might not be able to go, and called it a “classic” moment. ‘is “”.
“He was pushing to get there, he didn’t feel like he could play a lot of snaps,” Stefanski said. “I just felt like, for this week, the safe thing to do was let these other guys get all these reps, although they had a bunch last week, plan the game accordingly, then we will update you guys as we go into the next week. “
Stefanski said he was comfortable with the plan last week, as were the players, but this week he’s taking a different approach.
“I just feel like this week I would like to do it that way and make the decision today,” he said.
Stefanski, who isn’t normally very revealing when it comes to injuries, said that was just how he wanted to handle the situation this week.
“I told Odell about it,” he said. “It’s my decision and I thought it was the right thing to do for this week.”
Donovan Peoples-Jones started for Beckham in Kansas City, playing 47 offensive snaps and had once caught for four yards. Rookie Anthony Schwartz also had significant playing time, seeing the field for 31 offensive shots and catching three of five targets for 69 yards.
“I thought Anthony had his opportunities in this last game and did a good job in his first game,” Stefanski said. “It’s not an easy place to go for your first game in the NFL. He was reliable when we called on him.
Beckham is coming back from an ACL tear suffered in an Oct. 25, 2020 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Beckham was kept out of team drills for most of training camp and the limited 7v7 and 11v11 work he did was not at full speed. Stefanski said last week that Beckham had had no contact at camp or in practice leading up to Sunday’s game at Arrowhead Stadium.
“I wouldn’t call this a conservative approach,” Stefanski said on a Zoom call with reporters on Monday. “We’re just trying to be appropriate with it all. At the end of the day, he’s coming out of major surgery, and we’re going to be working on it day in and day out. When he’s ready to play, he’ll play.
In 23 games with the Browns since a 2019 offseason trade brought him to Cleveland, Beckham has 97 catches for 1,354 yards and seven touchdowns. He made 23 catches for 319 yards and three touchdowns in seven games before tearing up his ACL in 2020.
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