Poe the Raven
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- Mar 16, 2019
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Receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has five seasons and three games under his belt. With his current team, however, he has only three games. As a result, he’s struggling to find his footing as a team leader in Cleveland.
“It’s probably just a personal battle of my own and just finding ways to lead,” Beckham said this week, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “And at times if I can’t lead by my play, then to say something.”
But what should he say and when should he say it? That’s the challenge for Beckham in his new city, and he’s feeling the urgency.
“[N]ow I’m at the point where there’s not enough time to feel anything out,” Beckham said. “You’ve just got to go in. And it’s not any pointing fingers, it’s motivating, it’s picking each other up, it’s inspiring the next person. And that’s what true leaders do. I don’t think there’s any rule book on how to be a leader, I don’t think I’ve ever read it or know who the author is, but there’s many different ways to lead and I’m just trying to find my way and my lane to lead over here.”
He’s right, but some would possibly say that if he’d spent more time with his new teammates during offseason workouts, he’d have a much better feel for how to lead them now.
“Sometimes I feel like I don’t know exactly the power or the place that I’m in,” Beckham said. “[I’m] an established player, this is Year Six in the league, so being able to go up to [Baker Mayfield] or hit him after the game and be like, ‘We’re right back to it Wednesday. [It’s] done, you can’t do nothing about the game, it’s over with, we’re onto Baltimore. We win this game, we’re tied for first in the division and that’s it, we finished the first quarter 2-2.'”
It’s one thing to get comfortable trying to motivate a single teammate. It’s quite another to contemplate addressing the whole team.
“It’s tough,” Beckham said. “I feel like it takes a strong individual to get up there. It’s different talking to 52 other teammates than it is playing in front of 80,000 people. It’s a completely different feeling. If that’s what this team needs, if that’s what I need to be, then I’m not afraid to do that. It’s just about finding the right opportunity.”
If the Browns, who face the Ravens and 49ers in the next two game, don’t start winning, it won’t be about opportunity but necessity for Beckham or someone else to give the locker room the message it will need to turn things around — especially since the schedule eventually softens, giving them a chance to make a playoff run even if their 1-2 start becomes 1-4.