New York Giants' Reported Interest in Odell Beckham Jr. Reunion Makes Zero Sense
The New York Giants this season have returned as one the NFL's most respected and smart franchises after spending most of the past decade in the wilderness of doing dumb things and losing a lot of games.
The great job general manager Joe Schoen has done in building a roster and coach Brian Daboll has done managing the players and setting a culture is amazing and, frankly, surprising in its speed of results.
Free agent Odell Beckham Jr., good friends with Bills pass rusher Von Miller, attended NBA Playoffs last May. (Photo by Jim Poorten/NBAE via Getty Images)
Giants Have Emerged From Bad Experiences
Because after desert experiences with Joe Judge, and Pat Shurmur, and even Ben McAdoo, this club has rebounded with a 7-4 record and is chasing a conference playoff berth.
That's the reason I don't quite understand the Giants' interest in Odell Beckham Jr.
Beckham is a big name with an impressive resume. It's the reason multiple contending teams have been so interested in hosting him as a potential free agent addition now that he's mostly recovered from an ACL injury and the ensuing rehabilitation.
The Cowboys have been the most interested team and have a visit set up with Beckham next week. The Buffalo Bills have shown interest and the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens have mostly chosen to lie in wait to see what shakes out.
The Giants, interestingly, have stepped out like the Cowboys and actually have worked to get ahead of their division rivals. They've set a meeting with Beckham starting Thursday (dinner, meet and greet) and Friday (medical exam more meet and greet).
The supposed idea of all these teams meeting OBJ is to add a potentially dynamic player. They figure if Beckham can help this year like he helped the Rams in last season's playoffs -- 9 receptions for 113 yards in the NFC title game and 2 catches for 52 yards an a TD in the Super Bowl before injuring his knee -- maybe he can make a difference now.
Odell Beckham Jr. helped the Los Angeles Rams win the Super Bowl last season. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Odell Beckham Makes Sense For Some Teams
That makes sense for the Cowboys. It even makes sense for the Bills, Chiefs and maybe even the Ravens.
But compare the Giants to those teams and it's obvious they don't belong. They are like the odd number out in a Sesame Street exercise.
The Cowboys, Bills, Chiefs, and maybe even Ravens are all fully constructed Super Bowl contenders. The all feature rosters with postseason experience. They all have quarterbacks who carry expectations of getting to the Super Bowl.
And none of those know Beckham intimately.
The Giants, on the other hand, are a plucky team in the midst of a rebuild. They play football like Princeton plays basketball -- all disciplined and well-thought and moving as a unit rather than individuals.
The Giants also have Daniel Jones at quarterback. He's the league's 18th rated passer.
So what am I saying? The Giants are interested in Beckham because maybe he can make them a bit better. And maybe he can't.
But he's definitely not the one player separating them from being a champion.
Because the Giants are not one player away.
The curious thing is the Giants know this. They know their warts better than anyone. They understand they're a project that is closer to its inception than completion.
Beckham isn't going to get the Giants a ring when the offensive line is battered and Jones is a game manager and the back end of the defense is needing reconstruction.
And yet, as of this writing, they're still in the Beckham derby.
Weird.
Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. celebrates with strong safety Karl Joseph of the Cleveland Browns. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Giants Got Rid Of Receiver Once Before
The Giants know Beckham better than any of the other teams because he played for them from 2014-2018. Well, Shoen and Daboll don't know him but ownership knows him.
So they must know he's a wild card.
Some days he's quoting Scripture. And some days he's saying and doing things that hurt a team.
Beckham, you'll recall, signed a 5-year contract extension worth $90 million in 2018. And within a short span he did an interview on ESPN that was not set up through the team.
In that interview he was asked if the Giants had a quarterback problem. And his answer, referring to two-time Super Bowl winner Eli Manning, was "I don't know."
Beckham also was asked if he was happy in New York and he answered, "It's a tough question."
The Giants had given him a $20 million signing bonus and Beckham wasn't certain he was happy with the team. Ownership, particularly John Mara, was not pleased.
"I think he needs to do a little more playing," Mara told reporters at the time, "and a little less talking."
Then-general manager Dave Gettleman almost immediately began seeking trade offers for Beckham. "Part of the responsibility of a general manager is to eliminate distractions," Gettleman told reporters at the Indianapolis combine afterward.
And with this experience, with Mara living the experience back in the day, the Giants are still interested in a reunion?
It can be argued Beckham isn't the same guy he was in 2018. He's matured.
Odell Beckham Jr. and Baker Mayfield of the Cleveland Browns didn't exactly get along at the end.
Beckham Has Had Issues With QBs
Yeah, well, he had issues with his quarterback in Cleveland in 2021. He played 29 games for the Browns and caught 7 touchdowns in that span but the most news he made was his distaste for Baker Mayfield at the end.
Yeah, well, that was last year. It's a new year, right?
Two days ago Beckham had an incident on an American Airlines flight that ultimately led the pilot to return the plane to the gate so the player could be escorted off. Beckham had to go because, ultimately, there was a disagreement or misunderstanding or something about him wearing his seat belt.
Two days ago, folks.
I wasn't there. I don't know what happened. Maybe the flight attendant was in the wrong. Maybe Beckham was. The point is stuff happens around Beckham and it's not always about touchdown catches and making plays in big moments.
The Giants have installed a culture that's all about winning and little else. No distractions or excuses. Kadarius Toney, for example, had hamstring issues, and trouble being on time to rehabilitation, and and getting to meetings, and he was gone, traded to the Chiefs.
Now that same team is interested in Odell Beckham? Makes zero sense.
Follow on Twitter: @ArmandoSalguero