Tag: Odell Beckam Jr.

Giants do not anticipate making a waiver claim on Odell Beckham Jr.

There will be no New York Giants-Odell Beckham Jr. reunion as the team does not anticipate making a waiver claim on OBJ.

The Cleveland Browns made it official on Monday, filing the necessary paperwork with the league to waive superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

All 31 other teams are now free to make a waiver claim on Beckham if they so choose, but the New York Giants do not anticipate being one of them — assuming there are any in the first place.

Asked about Beckham on Monday afternoon, Giants head coach Joe Judge said the team would discuss the wideout but are unlikely to make a move.

“We’re always very conscious of who’s available and who’s out there. It’s part of our job, knowing the league and what’s going on, and we talk through all the personnel moves. That would be something we talk about more internally, but I wouldn’t say there’s anything anticipation-wise at this moment,” Judge said.

The Giants, of course, selected Beckham No. 12 overall in the 2014 NFL draft but ended up trading him to Cleveland in 2019 after their relationship fell apart. Beckham had taken aim at his teammates — specifically, quarterback Eli Manning — in a bizarre interview with Josina Anderson a few months prior and that would be all she wrote.

In the aftermath of the trade, Beckham claimed the Giants situation was personal and that they had sent him to Cleveland “to die.” Those in New York went on the record simply wishing OBJ well in all future endeavors.

Even if the Giants wanted a reunion with Beckham, it likely wouldn’t come to fruition. The receiver has already stated he prefers playing for a playoff contender, which the Giants are not. There’s also the state of New York’s salary cap — something that would prevent them from adding Beckham’s remaining contract without a significant personnel shakeup.

As much as some fans would love to see it, there’s not going to be an OBJ-Giants reunion.

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Browns expected to release ex-Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr.

The Cleveland Browns are expected to release former New York Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr. as early as Friday.

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The saga in Cleveland appears to be nearing its end with multiple reports suggesting the Browns intend to release wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. as early as Friday.

Both Pro Football Talk and Yahoo! Sports report that the relationship has been severed and after several days of negotiations, the two sides are headed for divorce.

In a move that has been in the works since Tuesday night, a league source told Yahoo Sports the Browns have come to an agreement to release Beckham. The source said the Browns and Beckham’s representatives were still finalizing financial details on Thursday that would ultimately result in the Browns placing Beckham on waivers.

The Browns initially acquired Beckham in a blockbuster trade with the New York Giants that also included Olivier Vernon going to Cleveland and Jabrill Peppers, Kevin Zeitler and some picks going to Big Blue.

The Giants decided to part ways with Beckham after giving him a massive contract due, in part, to some of his sideline antics and open criticism of both the team and his teammates.

Beckham also had a history of on-field issues during his time with the Giants, including a meltdown against the Carolina Panthers and cornerback Josh Norman that led to a suspension.

Following that incident, Beckham again railed against his teammates, claiming they didn’t have his back.

Although Beckham might be an elite talent who has still yet to reach his full potential, the constant maturity issues are clearly wearing thin. And while he’s bound to receive significant attention on the free agent market, teams will be wary of that dark cloud that seems to follow OBJ.

Do not expect the Giants to express any sort of interest in a reunion with Beckham.

Sterling Shepard ‘learned a lot’ from Odell Beckham, Victor Cruz

New York Giants WR Sterling Shepard is appreciative of his time with Odell Beckham and Victor Cruz, saying he “learned a lot” from the duo.

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New York Giants veteran wide receiver Sterling Shepard is having a solid training camp this summer. The sixth-year former second-round pick out of Oklahoma is currently not only the senior wideout on the roster, he’s the longest-tenured Giant.

This week, the Giants head to Cleveland to engage is joint practices with the Browns before they face one another in a preseason game on Sunday.

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That means Shepard will be reunited with his former Giant teammate, Odell Beckham Jr., but he says it’s no big deal.

“I saw him all over the offseason and then I talk to him every week,” revealed Shepard but said that seeing Beckham this week will “be cool.”

Shepard said that he worked out in Arizona with Beckham and Saquon Barkley this past offseason. Both of those players are coming off major knee injuries.

“They looked good,” Shepard said. “Following everything that the trainers were saying and progressing over the offseason.”

As for Beckham, Shepard said that he is looking forward to facing the Giants this week.

“He’s just excited to see us and see his boys,” said Shepard. “That’s pretty much all we’ve been talking about.”

Shepard has embraced his role as a team leader, taking over after Beckham was traded two years ago. He learned from both Beckham and another former Giant wideout, Victor Cruz.

“Odell used to tell me, do as I say, not as I do. I got to learn from him and then I also had Vic who had been through a lot,” Shepard said. “He had been through winning a Super Bowl and was a really experienced guy, so I learned a lot from him and how to be a leader, as well. I got kind of thrown into that role a little bit earlier than I thought I would but having those guys helped me adjust to that.”

The Giants have not formally made Shepard a captain, but he and his teammates all see him as a leader.

“Everybody has their own way of leading and I’ve always viewed myself as a leader even though I may not have had a C on my chest. I always viewed myself that way and that’s how I carry myself,” Shepard said.

This season, Shepard will lead a more talented group than in years past. He himself will be pushed back into the role of slot receiver where he flourishes.

The Giants will start free agent Kenny Golladay and Darius Slayotn on the outside and sprinkle in the likes of rookie Kadarius Toney, John Ross, Dante Pettins, C.J. Board and David Sills.

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James Bradberry ‘looks forward’ to practicing against Odell Beckham, Jarvis Landry

New York Giants CB James Bradberry is looking forward to practicing against Browns receivers, including Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry.

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New York Giants Pro Bowl cornerback James Bradberry is seen as an ascending player in the NFL these days and, having come from a small college program, has always been up against the odds.

Bradberry has become one of the best cover corners in the league, racking up 18 pass breakups last year, his first with the Giants after signing a three-year. $45 million deal last March.

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Heading into this season, the Giants are relying on Bradberry to remain their cornerstone corner and have added former Tennessee Titans’ first rounder Adoree’ Jackson to line up across the field from him.

This week, the Giants head to Cleveland, where they will scrimmage with the Browns before liming up against them in their second preseason game on Sunday.

Bradberry is looking forward to the challenge of facing the Browns’ very talented wide receiver group headed by former Giant Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry.

“I’m looking forward to facing the entire Browns team,” Bradberry told reporters on Tuesday. “You got some good receivers other than Odell: (Jarvis Landry, (Rashard) Higgins, Donovan Peoples (Jones), so they got some good receivers all across the board that I’m ready to go against.”

Bradberry has been consistently lining up against the Giants’ wideouts but has seen little or none of their newest additions as Kenny Golladay (hamstring) and Kadarius Toney (situations) have been sidelined most of the summer.

One player who Bradberry was asked about was third-year wideout David Sills, who has been a standout at camp thus far and caught three passes versus the Jets in last week’s preseason game.

“I see a crafty receiver. He’s been around the league for a minute now, so he knows some crafty moves that most receivers don’t know. So, I see a crafty guy. He’s a good guy to go against for me,” said Bradberry.

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Giants’ Dave Gettleman has ‘no regrets’ over drafting Saquon Barkley

New York Giants GM Dave Gettleman has no regrets over drafting Saquon Barkley, maintains his faith in Daniel Jones and praises Joe Judge.

The New York Giants are deep into their 2021 training camp and preseason and with multiple questions still to be answered, the team decided to empty the offices and send the powers that be out in front of the media.

The first person up was general manager Dave Gettleman, the man who has the most to lose — and gain — by this season. The media was waiting with a fusillade of questions regarding Gettleman’s personnel decisions and future plans.

Here are a few of the hot points from Gettleman’s media season on Tuesday.

Bill Barnwell declares Giants winners of Odell Beckham Jr. trade

Bill Barnwell has declared the New York Giants winners of the Odell Beckham Jr. trade, but when it comes to the Leonard Williams deal…

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For some, it seems like forever ago when the New York Giants made a trade to send Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns.

At the time, many believed the Giants didn’t get enough in return for Beckham. However, the notion that New York was going to get a return that included multiple first-round picks wasn’t realistic.

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On Monday, ESPN released a list of trades that were reevaluated since 2018 including the Giants and Browns trade that sent the star receiver to Cleveland. Bill Barnwell marked the Giants as the winners of the Beckham exchange.

At the time: The Giants were almost universally blasted for trading Beckham, only weeks after general manager Dave Gettleman had dismissed trade speculation by saying, “We didn’t sign [Beckham] to trade him.” OBJ was dealt months after signing a five-year, $90 million extension, with the Giants paying him $20.5 million for his final 12 games in a Giants uniform. I saw this as a clear victory for the Browns, who were getting a franchise wide receiver locked up for years at a below-market price.

What happened: Beckham’s first two years in Cleveland have been a major disappointment. An uneven first season under Freddie Kitchens saw him go from being the king of slants to producing the league’s worst EPA on slant routes in 2019. Beckham was then off to a slow start in 2020 before tearing an ACL. Baker Mayfield‘s numbers were better across the board without OBJ in the lineup, and while correlation is not causation, the Browns simply didn’t miss him during their run to the postseason.

While the Giants haven’t replaced Beckham in the lineup, they’ve gotten more out of the players on the other side of this trade. Peppers hasn’t been the sort of game-disrupting safety scouts might have expected from his time at Michigan — and he doesn’t play the more valuable free safety role — but he’s a solid strong safety and a team leader. Lawrence has been the best player in this trade, living up to expectations as a stout run defender while adding four sacks last season. Peppers and Lawrence might have been replacements for departed veterans in Landon Collins and Damon Harrison, but they’ve held up their end of the bargain. Beckham hasn’t in Cleveland, and four years removed from his last Pro Bowl appearance, it would be a surprise if he was a No. 1 receiver in 2021. This one has flipped all the way around for Gettleman and Big Blue.

In hindsight: Win for Giants

The fact that the Giants signed Beckham to a major extension less than a year before they parted ways with him still pains many Giants fans. However, most logical fans would agree that Big Blue did win the trade.

That was not, however, the only Giants trade listed by Barnwell. The Leonard Williams trade was also reevaluated.

Many still can’t believe general manager Dave Gettleman gave up draft capital to bring in Williams in the middle of a season where the Giants were out of the playoff picture.

At the time: This trade was inexplicable when it happened. The 2-6 Giants sent a third-round pick and a compensatory selection to the Jets for Williams, who was going to be a free agent after the season. You could maybe justify it as trading for a player who was going to earn a compensatory selection after the year, but the Giants didn’t have the sort of roster to sit out free agency in 2020, and signing a similarly expensive player would have cost them the compensatory pick. The Jets were trading away a player they didn’t expect to re-sign in free agency.

What happened: Williams produced a half-sack in a half-season with the Giants. Facing free agency, the Giants franchised Williams, who … then delivered a career season in 2020, with 11.5 sacks and 30 knockdowns. General manager Dave Gettleman then eventually signed him to a massive extension, making him one of the highest-paid defenders in the league. Davis started six games for the Jets at safety in 2020, and Carter was one of two players the Jets drafted named Michael Carter this past April.

Do the Giants deserve credit for the Williams trade in 2019 given what happened in 2020? It’s tough to say. They gave up two picks for a half-season of him (where he wasn’t a difference-maker) and the right to franchise him before the 2020 season. He was a star in 2020, but given that he was making $16.1 million, the Giants didn’t get much more than what they paid for in the process. They could have avoided that altogether and held on to the two picks by simply waiting until the offseason, so the only way trading for Williams in 2019 makes sense is if the Giants thought they had no shot of signing him in free agency after the season. This deal looks better after he delivered on his promise in 2020, but it’s still tough to make the logic line up and justify the timing of the deal.

In hindsight: No winners

It seems silly that the Giants are not declared the winner in this one after Williams’ double-digit sack season last year. However, many will argue that Big Blue could have waited to land Williams in free agency back in 2019.

Although Barnwell marked the Williams deal as having no winner, that tune might change after this year if Williams comes close to replicating his performance from 2020 and helping the Giants to their first playoff appearance since 2016.

Gettleman’s trades have been a mixed bag in his time with the Giants. Of course, many still have not let go of the fact that Gettleman did not trade Landon Collins for a return in the season before they let him walk via free agency (ditto Dalvin Tomlinson last year).

Coming off the 2020 offseason, Big Blue has high hopes to turn a corner this season. Regardless of who won trades in the past 2021 will be an extremely important year for Gettleman & Co.

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Giants’ Kadarius Toney tested similar to Odell Beckham Jr. before draft

Kadarius Toney’s pre-draft athletic test results are shockingly similar to former New York Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr.

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The New York Giants selected Florida wide receiver Kadarius Toney with the 20th pick in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft this past weekend in Cleveland.

The last time Big Blue took a receiver in Round 1 of the draft was back in 2014 when they selected some kid out of LSU named Odell Beckham Jr. with the 12th overall pick.

How do Toney’s workout measurables fare versus OBJ’s? Dan Duggan of The Athletic recently posted the eerie similarity between the two players.

Beckham went on to be a sensation in his first several seasons and the Giants plan to leverage Toney’s abilities in the same fashion. They will want to get the football into his hands often.

Both players play faster than their 40 times. You can tell by watching the way they both can accelerate when needed to make tacklers miss and to create separation. The Giants hope Toney can bring the production that Beckham did in his early years.

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Giants to sign Kenny Golladay: Contract details

The New York Giants have signed WR Kenny Golladay to a contract that is eerily similar to Odell Beckham Jr.’s in some ways.

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After a meeting that lasted nearly three days — a true rarity in today’s NFL — the New York Giants and wide receiver Kenny Golladay finally agreed on a contract.

Golladay was reportedly given the opportunity to choose between a one-year deal and a multi-year deal and chose the latter. He and the Giants settled on a four-year contract worth a max value of $72 million including $40 million guaranteed.

The $40 million guaranteed was the second substantial sum the Giants handed out this week, previously giving defensive lineman Leonard Williams $45 million guaranteed.

Golladay’s deal is eerily similar to the one New York gave Odell Beckham Jr. prior to trading him to the Cleveland Browns. They are now tied for sixth in the NFL in AAV at the wide receiver position.

Also of note, with the four-year deal Goallday becomes the longest-contracted Giant. He is the only current player scheduled to still be under contract through the 2024 season.

Exact details of Golladay’s contract, including yearly breakdown and 2021 cap hit, have not yet been released. We will update this story when they become available.

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Giants to sign Kenny Golladay: Contract details

The New York Giants have signed WR Kenny Golladay to a contract that is eerily similar to Odell Beckham Jr.’s in some ways.

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After a meeting that lasted nearly three days — a true rarity in today’s NFL — the New York Giants and wide receiver Kenny Golladay finally agreed on a contract.

Golladay was reportedly given the opportunity to choose between a one-year deal and a multi-year deal and chose the latter. He and the Giants settled on a four-year contract worth a max value of $72 million including $40 million guaranteed.

The $40 million guaranteed was the second substantial sum the Giants handed out this week, previously giving defensive lineman Leonard Williams $45 million guaranteed.

Golladay’s deal is eerily similar to the one New York gave Odell Beckham Jr. prior to trading him to the Cleveland Browns. They are now tied for sixth in the NFL in AAV at the wide receiver position.

Also of note, with the four-year deal Goallday becomes the longest-contracted Giant. He is the only current player scheduled to still be under contract through the 2024 season.

As it relates specifically to Golladay’s contract, Art Stapleton of USA TODAY reports that the deal has a max value of $76 million with $28 million guaranteed now and another $12 million guaranteed on the third day of the 2022 league year. There are also $250,000 per-game bonuses in 2021 and a $250,000 workout bonus in each 2022-2024.

Golladay will also be due a $4.5 million roster bonus in March of 2022 through 2024.

Exact cap hits by year have not yet been revealed.

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Giants vs. Browns: A revenge game for many

A Week 15 matchup between the New York Giants and Cleveland Browns will be a revenge game for many — probably more than you realize.

The New York Giants will be entertaining some old friends when the Cleveland Browns come to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey this Sunday night.

Additionally, the Browns are going to see some familiar faces on the other side of the ball as well.

In fact, there are quite a few cross-connections here in Week 15.