Odell Beckham Jr. skipped the Cleveland Browns’ voluntary OTAs, and former Browns offensive tackle Joe Thomas is here to explain, in incredible detail, not only why it is not the huge deal some have made it out to be but also why it could actually be beneficial for him as a player.
ESPN 850 WKNR’s Tony Grossi, a longtime Browns reporter, wrote that Beckham missed nine of his new team’s 10 voluntary OTA practices, and that head coach Freddie Kitchens was irritated by it. That was late last week, and it followed a series of other stories from Grossi about the wide receiver’s absence.
In a detailed and thoughtful essay — which included a TL;DR synopsis — Thomas thoroughly explained Monday on Twitter why he felt compelled to defend Beckham and add his own stance on OTAs. The argument is rooted in the idea that veteran players know their bodies best and are, therefore, the most qualified to make decisions about participating in offseason voluntary activities.
Titled “Tony Grossi – OBJ: Missing in Action Storyline: A Players [sic] Perspective”, Thomas poses and answers questions about why Grossi focuses so much on Beckham not being at OTAs and then about what he gets wrong by focusing in on it.
Here’s Thomas’ handy synopsis:
“OTAs and NFL off-season training with a team vs. on one’s own is a tradeoff of getting additional practice reps vs. the best readiness for the body and mind. I think reasonable minds can agree that if a player could practice everyday [sic] of the year but sacrifice that for never being able to work-out, we would say we need to practice less and workout [sic] more. Therefore, it’s reasonable to say there is some type of balance between practice and training that we need to find throughout a calendar year. I believe that a veteran player is the only person able to truly know what that balance is for themselves. That balance is often found in the off-season, and as long as a veteran player comes into camp in shape, then he knows the best methods to get himself physically and mentally in shape for a long and grinding NFL season because there is nothing that happens in OTAs that won’t quickly be made up for during training camp. Let’s not think we know a players’ [sic] body and mind better than they know themselves. Rest and mental re-focus is the only thing that can’t be caught back up on in training camp.”
And then Grossi offered a response about Thomas’ own record attending OTAs, and his question seems easily answerable in the former tackle’s argument about no one knowing what’s best for is body beyond the player.
Thomas added an even more incredibly thorough response in a Twitter thread later Monday evening.
Quite the thesis here, and it’s safe to say Thomas won this Twitter spat with his detailed argument.
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