NFL Week 6 Disappointments
Odell Beckham Jr.: 28.82
The Cleveland Browns are falling apart. In Week 6, they blew a double-digit lead against the Seattle Seahawks to fall to 2-4 on the season. Clearly, the Browns have a lot of problems to deal with right now, but one of the less talked about is the relatively poor play of Odell Beckham Jr. He had a decent game in terms of conventional statistics, reaching 100 receiving yards for just the second time this season. However, his OSM grade of 28.82 was 32nd out of the 48 qualifying receivers graded so far.
Looking at Beckham’s Next Gen Stats, most ranked in the middle of the pack among qualifying receivers and tight ends this weekend. He averaged just 2.4 yards of separation on each of his 11 targets, and only averaged 4.7 yards after the catch, just 0.5 yards higher than his expected average. Worst of all, he only caught 54.55% of his 11 targets. Once again, those metrics aren’t terrible, and neither was his resulting OSM grade. But for Beckham, “not terrible” simply isn’t good enough.
As a disclaimer, I have always liked Beckham. He has gotten a lot of unfair criticism from the media throughout his career. But right now, he is playing like a below-average wide receiver. If he actually was an average-at-best receiver, that might be acceptable. In reality though, Beckham is one of the highest-paid, most talented wide receivers in the NFL, and he needs to perform at a higher level if Cleveland is going to turn this season around.