FREE AGENT WR ODELL BECKHAM JR. MEETS MULTIPLE TEAMS AT NFL OWNERS MEETINGS
Nearly fourteen months removed from his last NFL game, many around the league are still waiting to find out where Super Bowl LVI champion and former Los Angeles Rams wide receiver, Odell Beckham Jr. is going to sign next.
The former New York Giant visited the decision makers at the NFL Annual Owners Meetings in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday. Beckham lives in Phoenix and was pictured sitting courtside at a Suns game this month. The recently-turned 30-year-old receiver has not played an NFL snap since exiting Super Bowl LVI in the second quarter with a non-contact ACL injury.
The LSU alum seemed to be on track to make a comeback late last season but didn’t end up signing with a team, with multiple sources reporting that he was not ready to return in 2022. Beckham, however, held a workout in front of a few teams on March 11th and now seems like he could be set to begin offseason activities with a team next month.
According to multiple reports, Beckham met with several teams on Tuesday including long-time admirers, the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets.
Beckham told CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson that he had a “good meeting” with the Ravens and that “the love was there.” Both Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta and head coach John Harbaugh made it clear following the 2022 season that rebuilding the team’s wide receiver corps was a priority this offseason and are under pressure to deliver a quality option at the position. The Ravens wide receiver room ranked 31st in the league last year in total receiving yards.
According to Anderson, the Ravens are “putting in a noteworthy and competitive effort to add a top-flight receiver” as far as the team’s attempt to sign Beckham. Beckham told Anderson on Tuesday regarding his meeting with Baltimore,” The love was there, good meeting… a lot of people and teams I bumped into.”
New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh is a big admirer of Beckham’s and was quick to rubbish Beckham’s injury history during his media availability this week. Beckham has suffered two torn anterior cruciate ligament injuries in his career.
“ACLs nowadays, those are easily fixable,” said Saleh. “He’s been a fantastic receiver in this league, everything you hear about him is, ‘he’s a phenomenal person.’ You’re always going to turn over every stone, cross your ‘T’s, dot your ‘I’s, make sure you’re not missing an opportunity to add a great player.
“There’s no guarantee anything will happen but to go there and talk about it… We’re always going to study every player on the market to make sure that we’re not missing out an opportunity to add a good player.”
Beckham noticeably didn‘t meet with the New York Giants on Tuesday but did facetime Giants head coach Brian Daboll on his way out of the Biltmore, as per Record Sports’ Art Stapleton. Giants Owner John Mara said yesterday that they haven’t closed the door on bringing in Beckham while Daboll revealed to reporters that he has texted Beckham “once or twice” this offseason. Daboll had dinner with Beckham towards the end of the season last year and talked about him again on Tuesday.
“He’s a good young man,” said Daboll. “It was a good dinner. [We] had a good conversation similar to a lot of free agent meetings that come up. You just try to get to meet one another.
“Again, any decision that we make we’ll do it together. Joe [Schoen] and I will sit down and we’ll talk about it and it’s got to make sense for everybody, whether it’s him [Beckham], another free agent or an undrafted free agent. We always try to look to add as many good people as we can.”
Beckham has also been linked to the Kansas City Chiefs who are now short at the wide receiver position after Juju Smith-Schuster signed with the New England Patriots and Mecole Hardman signed with the New York Jets this month. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid spoke on Monday and didn’t rule out the team trying to sign the free agent wideout.
Beckham’s former team, the Cleveland Browns, didn’t officially meet with the receiver on Tuesday outside of just saying hello as Beckham was pictured hugging Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski as he arrived at the Biltmore. Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot reported this week that the Browns are happy with their acquisitions of Elijah Moore and Marquise Goodwin and aren’t looking to reunite Beckham with the dawgpound. Cleveland released Beckham on November 5th, 2021 before he went on to sign with eventual Super Bowl champions, the LA Rams.
As far as the Los Angeles Rams are concerned, head coach Sean McVay confirmed to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero on Tuesday that the team has interest in bringing back Beckham. McVay said he loves Beckham but noted that there are a lot of other teams interested in the star wide receiver so they’ll “see how it plays out.” The 30 year old also caught up with Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead in the corridor of the Biltmore on Tuesday.
With Beckham shopping around for his next destination, the three-time Pro Bowler gave a hint on social media of what numbers he would prefer on his team jersey. NFL owners approved a proposal early Tuesday allowing any player to wear Number Zero except offensive and defensive linemen, to which Beckham responded on Twitter: “#0 or #7 tufffff.”
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.