LSU wide receivers stick together.
Justin Jefferson tweets about 'CLOWNS', says OBJ 'was not the problem'
The second-year Vikings receiver had some thoughts during Monday Night Football.
December 14, 2021 at 3:19PM
That was the main takeaway from Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson tweeting rather forcefully about Odell Beckham Jr. during Monday Night Football.
There's plenty to unpack from a short tweet and the comments that ensued.
First, Beckham has obviously been more productive since parting ways in the middle of this season with the Browns (rhymes with clowns, more on that in a minute).
He caught a touchdown pass for the third consecutive game from Matthew Stafford, this one helping the Rams to an important 30-23 win over the Cardinals even with four key players out due to COVID protocols.
That's after having just seven touchdowns over three seasons — none this year in six games — with the Browns, where Baker Mayfield was his quarterback. And that was after topping 1,300 yards and reaching double-digit TDs each of his first three seasons while caching passes from Eli Manning in New York.
If Jefferson was implying that Mayfield and the Browns were the problem, well, he has a point because OBJ has been far more productive with other teams and QBs.
That said, Cleveland seems to have experienced some addition by subtraction. They have gone 3-2 since dumping the mercurial Beckham, while they were 3-3 with him in the lineup. The Rams are 2-2 since adding Beckham after starting the year 7-2.
Even though those numbers could be circumstantial, plenty of Browns fans pointed out to Jefferson that Cleveland beat the Vikings earlier this season, implying that he should stop talking.
But even that probably proved Jefferson's point. Mayfield's inaccuracy (15 for 33) was among the only things that kept the game close, and Beckham finished with just two catches for 27 yards. (Jefferson had 84 yards receiving and scored the Vikings' only TD).
In the end, everyone is probably happier now. The Browns and OBJ didn't mix well. The Rams got another threat, while Beckham got a more accomplished QB to play with.
If Cleveland is just a QB away from true contention, it will be interesting to see if they pursue Cousins this offseason and reunite him with Kevin Stefanski.
If that happened, Jefferson might find out the hard way what it's like to play with a less accomplished quarterback.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
