CLEVELAND (AP) — Odell Beckham Jr. is about to run a deep route out of New Jersey and straight to Cleveland.
The superstar wide receiver is bound for the Browns to be a target for quarterback Baker Mayfield as the center piece of a blockbuster trade, two people familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Tuesday night.
The Browns are sending a first- and third-round pick in 2019 along with safety Jabrill Peppers to the Giants for Beckham, one of the NFL’s top players, said the people who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because league rules prohibit teams from announcing trades until 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The deal is conditional on both players passing physicals.
With the Browns, Beckham will be reunited with receiver Jarvis Landry, a close friend and teammate at LSU.
He’ll also give Mayfield an elite weapon, and his arrival could vault the Browns, who went 7-8-1 last season after not winning a game in 2017, into legitimate championship contenders.
The trade is the second major one involving a star wide receiver in four days as the Pittsburgh Steelers recently sent Antonio Brown to the Oakland Raiders.
It’s the second trade completed in the past week by the Giants and Browns.
Cleveland sent guard Kevin Zeitler to New York for edge rusher Olivier Vernon, who will now play on the opposite side from Pro Bowler Myles Garrett.
The Browns have had a busy offseason, signing troubled running back Kareem Hunt to a one-year contract, trading for Vernon and agreeing to a three-year, $39 million deal with defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson.
Chiefs sign Mathieu on
three-year contract
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs agreed to a $42 million, three-year deal with safety Tyrann Mathieu on Monday, continuing what is expected to be an aggressive offseason overhaul of their leaky defense.
The money the Chiefs intend to give “the Honey Badger” is roughly what they freed up Sunday, when they released pass rusher Justin Houston.
Houston was due $15.25 million this season and carried a salary cap hit of $21.1 million, and the decision to release him freed up about $14 million.
That allowed the Chiefs to actively pursue Mathieu while still giving them enough salary cap space to address other areas of their defense, which is changing from a 3-4 to a 4-3.
