Odell Beckham Jr. knows that his second stint with the New York Giants is going to look and feel different.
At 33, he is looking for a semblance of stability after missing all of last season — he was suspended then went unsigned — and playing for four different teams during a four-year stretch from 2021-2024. He is no longer the marquee, No. 1 man in the wide receiver room. That honor belongs to Malik Nabers.
But Beckham still believes that he can produce while giving the team that drafted him the wide-receiving depth it has lacked for years.
“I take it as if God’s giving me one year, then it is what it is, but who knows what it’s going to be,” he began. “I’m just trying to be present each and every day, and prove to myself that I am who I know I am. Everybody likes to talk about, ‘Is he going to be this, that?’ And I’m like, LeBron James used to take off before the free-throw line, and now if he’s taking off with his foot right in front of it, he’s still got a different game, but he’s still playing at a high level. I believe that I can play at a high level.”
This week at training camp certainly won’t hurt his confidence. Beckham had been one of the standouts on Tuesday and Wednesday — the latter in which he caught four passes during live drills — while working his way into the first-team offense and lining up alongside starting quarterback Jaxson Dart.
He needs to keep this up if he wants to secure a place on the Giants’ roster for Week 1. New head coach John Harbaugh has been adamant in his stance that Beckham has to earn his spot within a crowded depth chart that will see Darius Slayton, Darnell Mooney, rookie Malachi Fields, and Clavin Austin III slotting in ahead of him.
“It’s about how many opportunities you get, knowing that I may not be getting 10, 12 targets, what am I going to do with the five or six that I get?” Beckham said. “How can I help all the other receivers and the running backs, and how can I help this team? What can I bring? I’m not so much caught up in what numbers are going to be; I just want to be the best me that I can be. I want to get open and create separation, catch the ball, hopefully score a lot, and have fun. That’s really all it is for me.”
This is the first time in Beckham’s career that he is on the roster bubble. A decade ago, he was on track to be the greatest pass-catcher in Giants history before injuries and a strained relationship with management brought his time to a premature end. He has not come close to those same heights in his stops with Cleveland, Los Angeles, Baltimore, or Miami.
“I kind of like it,” Beckham said. “My boy texted me, he’s like, ‘This is where you thrive. Pressure,” Beckham said. “When I have pressure, I live for it. Tatted on my finger. And to me, I feel like if it’s something that’s not like — if we were just messing around, playing HORSE, we’re playing, we’re not playing for $100, I might lose. But you put the $100 on there, and then, hypothetically, you know what I’m saying? And like I’m going to want to step up to the big of the moment.”
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