months in the making, Odell Beckham Jr.‘s free agency tour begins Thursday with a visit to the Giants. Beckham is set to leave for Buffalo on Friday, with perhaps his most important meeting — with Dallas, considered a favorite — scheduled for Monday.
Those visits will not include Beckham practice, according to the New York Post’s Paul Schwartz, who notes that the eight-year veteran wide receiver has no plans to audition for any of the three teams he will visit. While marquee-free agents visit teams and don’t train, that’s nothing new, Beckham’s plan will put more emphasis on the medical evaluations of interested teams.
Giants doctors will be examining Beckham, who has torn his left cruciate ligament twice since October 2020, and that routine will certainly continue in Buffalo and Dallas over the next few days. The Giants’ medical exam will include an MRI, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets.
Some skepticism about Beckham’s ability has surfaced in the league of late, but it’s believed the outstanding pass catcher was put to work in November. Early December was the final end of OBJ’s likely return schedule, but his Rams contributions still convinced teams to wait until late this season.
Beckham, 30, will meet with new Giants power brokers Joe Nice and Brian Dabollalong with associates who were with the Giants during his five-year stint in New York and reconnecting with him John Mara. More serious talks are expected to begin Friday, Schwartz adds.
The Giants gave Beckham a five-year, $90 million extension just before the start of the 2018 season, and while that year included a rebound from a losing 2017 season, OBJ’s 1,052-yard campaign also came during a season in which he criticized Eli Manning in a television interview. The then-Dave GettlemanThe Giants-led regime traded Beckham to the Browns in March 2019. Among the players swapped in this deal only Dexter Lawrence stays with one of these teams.
As for Beckham’s fit with the Schoen-Daboll Giants, depending on his readiness and understanding of Daboll’s system, he would come in as a potentially lethal X-Factor, helping a Giants team whose receiving schedule has changed drastically as of September. Ex-Beckham teammate Sterling Shepherd is off for the season; so is the choice for the second round Wan’Dale Robinson. Kadarius Toney is now in Kansas City, and Kenny GolladayThe pact of $18 million a year has done next to nothing. Month-long commercial candidate Darius Slaytonwho was drafted a month after the OBJ trade is now in Daniel Jones‘ Goal #1.
Jones and Beckham never played together, but if OBJ returns to the Big Apple, he would be a crucial help to the fourth-year quarterback and the team’s quest to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. This season is Beckham’s youngest Pro Bowl year. Despite injuries and a poor Cleveland fit, he has remained at the star level. Teams’ bids will be meaningful during this unique free agency derby. Beckham is believed to be aiming for a multi-year engagement.