Beckham played in six games this season, catching seventeen passes for 232 yards and without a touchdown.
Beckham's best games were against the Bears in week three (five catches, seventy-seven yards) and in a week six loss to the Cardinals (five catches, seventy-nine yards), but his noted lack of chemistry with Baker Mayfield never improved and after a video released by Beckham's father showed multiple clips of Mayfield missing an open Beckham by overthrowing him (expect to see videos of every other Browns receiver make similar videos if the argument is overthrown passes) and not throwing the ball to him at all.
Beckham was acquired by the Browns by the John Dorsey front office in 2019 when Dorsey traded first and third-round draft picks along with safety Jabrill Peppers to add what was thought to be an impact performer on the outside.
Beckham caught 74 passes for 1,035 yards and four touchdowns in his first season in Cleveland in the only year of the Freddie Kitchens era but caught only twenty-three passes and three touchdowns in seven games in 2020 before tearing his ACL.
Beckham never seemed to mesh with Baker Mayfield and every game that the two played together was likely to see a few of Mayfield overthrows, Mayfield not seeing an open Beckham, an attempt to find Beckham on a pass play intended to get Beckham into space that he never seemed to find, and occasional lack of effort by Beckham to catch the ball.
The Browns were reported to have received several trade offers for Beckham at the trade deadline but Cleveland decided to try to straighten out the differences with Beckham and then the video was released by Beckham Sr.
Here's my take- Plenty of blame to spread around.
Beckham deserves some blame for his occasional diva-like behavior, lack of effort unless getting the football in the volume that he wanted, and for not settling things with his father and apologizing for the stress created for the franchise.
Baker Mayfield deserves some blame because he did miss Beckham many times per game if you combine overthrowing him and not throwing to him at all. and he didn't exactly cool things down with his media outing on Wednesday.
Kevin Stefanski deserves some blame as his offense doesn't favor star wideouts.
Look at the Viking's wideouts in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs and their numbers before Stefanski as offensive coordinator in Minnesota, during his tenure, and then numbers after leaving his offense.
Stefanski is a coordinator/play-caller that hasn't always made the best use of wide receivers in his offense and he hasn't done a good job integrating Beckham into his offense in Cleveland.
Andrew Berry deserves some blame because if things were so bad with Beckham in the locker room, that the video posted by Beckham's father shouldn't have mattered and he should have taken the best offer available,
Berry's late decision meant the Browns received nothing for Beckham now and the release means the Browns will not receive a compensation pick when Beckham would have left for free agency following the season.
All of four of these gentlemen are deserving of criticism and you can even argue that the Browns shouldn't have released Beckham at all as even a reduced Beckham's production is unlikely to be equaled by any of Donovan Peoples-Jones, Rashard Higgins, and Anthony Schwartz.
And it does seem that the Browns felt the damage to the culture from Beckham's father yet didn't mind when Emily Mayfield (Baker's Wife) chimed in on Instagram a few weeks back.
In the end, the differences may have been too much for the Browns and Beckham to come to an agreement and straighten things out.
But I'm not sure the Browns gained anything today and they may have split an already divided locker room.
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