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The New York Giants and Odell Beckham Jr. have become the center of attention in this busy NFL off-season. Will he be a Giants player next season or will he be traded before the NFL draft?
A report that Beckham wouldn’t set foot on a football field unless a contract extension is reached started the action. The Giants exercised a fifth year option on his rookie deal and is set to pay the wide receiver $8.5 million in 2018. The Giants hierarchy has said Beckham is not available for trade. Then New York said the price for Beckham is two first round picks. In case they haven’t noticed, those are contradicting statements.
The Giants aren’t fooling anyone with this back and forth. You don’t tell the world someone is unavailable, then in the next breath set an asking price. It sounds more like the Giants don’t want to trade Beckham just yet, but want to see what he is worth when the (almost inevitable) time comes. Putting a price tag of two round one picks is just negotiation. No team in their right mind would make that trade with his history of shenanigans, injuries and knowing they have to pay this guy top dollar. Of course, setting a price will bring offers in return and there won’t be a shortage of those.
Beckham is a massive talent who has scored 38 touchdowns in 47 career games. He averages 94.1 receiving yards and 6.7 catches per game. He’s also been a massive headache with a few immature acts and off field antics. He was fined numerous times from 2015 -2016 and even suspended one game for taking a cheap shot hit to the helmet of corner back Josh Norman. His 2017 season was cut short after he suffered a fracture to his left ankle versus the Los Angeles Chargers.
A video surfaced in early March with Beckham holding what appears to be a brown cigar usually used to roll marijuana and a female friend next to a white substance on a card. These are the things NFL teams try to avoid year in and year out: distractions that take away from their ultimate goal of winning.
Beckham is clearly becoming a bigger headache than New York is willing to handle. Their little dance of “we won’t trade him but here’s our asking price ” isn’t fooling anybody. There’s definitely a market, it will only take the right deal.
Nobody knows how he will return from injury and it remains to be seen if he gets the money he thinks he deserves. The only thing that is clear is he will be the talk of the town wherever he lands, he will make sure of it.
