Odell Beckham Jr. is officially done in Cleveland. The Browns and the disgruntled WR reached a settlement on his contract that will see him hit waivers on Monday. Evidently the settlement will void the final 2 years of Beckham’s contract, making him a free agent after this season. OBJ is still owed $7.3M on the remainder of his contract for this year, meaning any potential suitors will have some financial maneuvering to complete before adding him to their roster.
In 2021 Beckham has been targeted only 34 times with 17 receptions and 232 yards to his credit. In 2018 OBJ signed a 5 year/$90M contract with the Giants, but would only play one more season in New York before being traded to Cleveland in March of 2019 in exchange for 1st and 3rd round picks in the 2019 draft.
While the trade seemed like a good fit initially, the Beckham to the Browns experiment never yielded the intended results. Plagued by injuries over the past 3 years, OBJ posted a respectable 74rec/1035yds/4TD statline in 2019, but has only been able to suit up for 13 games since. A far cry from his explosive 3 year stretch from 2014-2016 where he went to 3 straight Pro Bowls, and had no less than 10TDs, 91rec, or 1305yds in any of his first 3 seasons.
If you’ve managed to hold onto Beckham this long, or he’s available on your league’s waiver wire he’s worth a stash as we wait and see where he winds up next week. Barring some creative contract restructuring here are the teams who currently have the cap space to add OBJ:
Numerous players including Von Miller and Lamar Jackson have made social media posts lobbying their teams to kick the tires on Beckham in recent days. While it would be wise to temper expectations in terms of what kind of numbers Beckham could post down the stretch, if he were to wind up in a pass first offense, or with a team that’s in desperate need of WR help it’s not out of the realm of possibility that OBJ posts serviceable fantasy numbers. For now he’s a HOLD candidate until we find out where he winds up.
Should a team with a high waiver priority select him Monday, but there is an unwillingness from Beckham to report, we could be looking at another prolonged absence from the field. OBJ owners are hoping that teams like the Lions, Texans, Jags etc. all balk at the opportunity, or feel as though the price tag is too high to add Beckham for the final few weeks of the season.