Last year, there were many blog posts and podcasts about Odell Beckham Jr. getting traded to the Green Bay Packers. It seemed obvious, right? Packers needed a receiver badly with a young receiving core. And it seemed like Beckham Jr. wanted out of Cleveland so the puzzle pieces fit together. It sort of went away then back in December, FOX Sports’ Skip Bayless said that Odell wanted to play with Aaron Rodgers. At the time, I wrote it made sense for the Packers to acquire him. Does it still?

From an on-the-field production standpoint, I believe that to be the case. Beckham Jr., for all his faults, is still better than anyone not named Davante Adams in that receiving room. The fact that they scratched a healthy Equanimous St. Brown last week speaks volumes of where they’re at with him. Packers are relying on four wide receivers and adding Beckham Jr. makes everyone else better. Sure, it might take away from Allen Lazard and Marques Valdez-Scantling’s targets, but it would ultimately increase their opportunities to be open.

From a contract perspective, this is where things get dicey. Packers already paid Kenny Clark. They have to do the same for Corey Linsley, Aaron Jones, and most importantly David Bakhtiari. Adding Beckham Jr. probably means two of those guys are going to go. He makes 14 million per year over the next four years. Which if that type of deal was done for Aaron Jones, Packers fans are probably okay with it. A touch high, but that’s a reasonable deal for Jones. If Beckham Jr. does get traded here, the likely consequence is Jones will be playing elsewhere next year.

Browns are run by a new front office that is inexperienced compared to the last regime. Who knows where they value Beckham Jr. at but if the deal would be a fourth and sixth-rounder next season, Green Bay should do it. The third round is probably the highest I would go as those are picks you can get back. For what he’s done recently, OBJ is not worth a first or second, and Green Bay would be crazy to do that. Browns will likely want that considering Mohammed Sanu was traded for a second-round pick. Those picks carry much more weight than anything fourth round or later. I doubt Gutekunst would pull that trigger unless he thought this was the missing piece to win a Super Bowl.

We’ll see what happens in the weeks to come.

Charlie.