It’s been almost a year since we’ve seen superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. on the football field. And barring any last-minute setbacks, he’ll be making his season debut for the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, according to ESPN.
On Thursday, he spoke to reporters about the season-ending knee injury he suffered last October and hinted at his imminent return. As a precautionary measure, he’s skipped the Browns’ first two games of this season.
“Everything going smooth,” he said. “Part of the progression, working my way into it. Everything feeling good. Just taking it day by day.”
So will we see him on the field on Sunday?
“We’ll see,” he said. “Taking it [one] day at a time.”
As we previously reported at The Root, the 28-year-old tore his ACL last season on Oct. 25:
While the Browns are off to their best start since 1994, Sunday’s win came at a steep cost. After [Baker] Mayfield’s interception in the first quarter, Odell Beckham Jr. injured his left knee attempting to chase down a defender. He would miss the rest of the game, and on Monday morning OBJ’s fate was sealed.
As he’s rehabbed to return from injury, he was limited throughout training camp and not much has changed in practice for the first two weeks of the season. In his absence, the Browns had their best season in decades. They finished 11-5 last season and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in their wild card match-up before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional round.
The Browns have even higher hopes this season with Beckham Jr. set to return on Sunday. However, wideout Jarvis Landry was put on injured reserve earlier this week after suffering an MCL sprain in his left knee. And with him set to miss at least three games, Cleveland is gonna need Beckham Jr. to come out the gate strong in his first game back in over a year.