With NFL teams still on “vacation” until reporting for training camp later this month, many players around the league are working out together to prepare for the upcoming season. Last offseason, then-Washington quarterback Carson Wentz led a session with several of the Commanders’ offensive players.
Washington quarterback Sam Howell and wide receiver Dyami Brown — former college teammates — were spotted working out together last week.
As for Dotson, he’s in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this week, working with other NFL wide receivers, such as Odell Beckham Jr., recent first-round pick Zay Flowers and Elijah Moore.
Gold Feet Certified shared the following video on Twitter:
— Gold Feet Certified (@GoldFeetGlobal) July 4, 2023
As a rookie last season, Dotson caught 35 passes for 523 yards and a team-leading seven touchdowns, despite missing five games.
Beckham signed with the Baltimore Ravens earlier this offseason, who drafted Flowers in the first round of April’s NFL draft. Moore was traded from the New York Jets to the Cleveland Browns.
According to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Kansas City and Buffalo were the only two teams to have “substantive” talks with Arizona. The biggest issue preventing a trade from happening in either situation was Hopkins’ contract, which is the challenge that was expected.
Beckham Jr.’s deal ultimately might be the issue that prevents Kansas City from signing Hopkins now that he’s set to become a free agent. He’ll likely be looking for a deal from a team that would pay him in a similar fashion. That could be a tough deal to find given that the Ravens seemed to be the only ones remotely interested in paying Beckham Jr. that much on a one-year deal.
But Beckham Jr. was strangely a little noncommittal about what might happen with Jackson during his Ravens’ introductory press conference on Thursday. While sitting alongside head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Eric DeCosta, Beckham Jr. kept Jackson’s Ravens future up in the air before passing the buck.
This line of thinking doesn’t rule out Jackson launching dimes to Beckham Jr. per se, but it’s not exactly a ringing guarantee either. And Beckham Jr. deferring to Harbaugh and DeCosta’s “leadership” is, well, what everyone’s been doing for the better part of a year!
On whether he got assurances from Lamar Jackson that the QB will be here, Odell Beckham Jr says "life is uncertain." And says, "My thoughts would be, he''ll be here and I know these two want him here."
GM Eric DeCosta reiterates that he wants Lamar here.
Someone, please tell me: Did Beckham Jr.’s signing actually shift anything tangible with the Ravens’ most important player? Anything at all?
To me, from an outsider’s perspective, it seems pretty evident that both Jackson and the Ravens are still valleys apart in their conversations behind the scenes. To me, from an outsider’s perspective, what else is Beckham Jr. going to say after signing a contract with play incentives up to $18 million?
The man probably needs a quarterback like Jackson to hit the requisite benchmarks. Of course, he’s going to hold out hope he returns. At the same time, aside from texts and video calls in the car, Beckham Jr. doesn’t hold any real influence on ensuring Jackson continues to wear Baltimore’s purple and black uniforms.
Any real momentum we thought Beckham Jr.’s addition would create on the Jackson front seems foolhardy. Nothing has really changed here, has it?
All we needed was Beckham Jr. to confirm our suspicions.
Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, it seems like Jackson actually helped recruit Beckham to Baltimore and that Beckham joined with the understanding Jackson would be his quarterback this fall.
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While Rapoport underscores that there isn’t a new deal imminent between Jackson and the Ravens, all signs point to the quarterback playing for Baltimore for at least another season.
If Jackson is actively recruiting players like Beckham to join him in Baltimore, the odds are slim that he’d back out and keep his trade request active.
Well, if this isn’t the best sign we’ve gotten that the Jackson storyline this NFL offseason might be coming to close, we’re not sure what is.
Nobody knows for sure what the long-term solution will be for Jackson and Baltimore, but it feels incredibly likely that the two sides will remain together for at least another season.
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The Jets should start playing some of their aces. If they have any.
Are we absolutely certain that New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas is about to usher in a contending era? Has everyone checked their sources properly?
On the one hand, the Ravens giving Beckham Jr. a deal with incentives up to $18 million is probably something New York couldn’t afford. On the other hand, Beckham Jr. was again being sold as another apparent weapon for Rodgers. Again, whenever (if?) that deal occurs.
Is Douglas playing checkers or chess? Are the Jets actually pushing all the right buttons before getting a potential star quarterback for the first time in decades? Or is everything about to blow up in New York’s face?
NFL fans couldn’t quite come to a consensus about the Jets’ patient/overcautious recent approach.
Is a 30-year-old OBJ enough to entice Lamar Jackson to stick around? Is that even what the Ravens want?
14 months after winning a Super Bowl — and tearing his ACL in the process — Odell Beckham Jr. has a new team. On Sunday, he reportedly signed a one-year contract worth up to $18 million.
It’s a common sense marriage between a team with a desperate need at wide receiver and a veteran All-Pro looking to restore his value. Baltimore’s depth chart at wideout last season was so grim the four receivers to take snap in the Ravens’ Wild Card loss to the Cincinnati Bengals were Sammy Watkins, Demarcus Robinson, James Proche and Andy Isabella. Students of the game may observe that none of these players are good.
Beckham, on the other hand, is three seasons removed from his last 1,000-yard campaign. Part of that downturn is thanks to injuries and an extended period languishing with the Cleveland Browns, but he’s also 30 years old. He needs to prove he can still be the difference maker who had 21 catches for 288 yards across 3.5 postseason games while helping the Los Angeles Rams win Super Bowl 56.
The Ravens will give him the opportunity to shine. The top wideout competing for targets next to him will be Rashod Bateman, who has a ton of potential but has only played 18 games in his first two seasons as a pro. The question now is who will be throwing him the ball.
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Beckham’s willingness to sign with Baltimore suggests he’s going to get to pair with 2019 unanimous MVP Lamar Jackson rather than Tyler Huntley or Anthony Brown — two players who had a 2:5 touchdown:interception ratio in relief of an injured Jackson last season. But Jackson’s standoff with the Ravens has been a long-simmering pot atop the hot stove of offseason news.
He and team executives have been unable to come to an agreement on a long term contract, leading to a one-year franchise tag for 2023. Along the way there’s been a trade request, reports of a fully guaranteed contract demand, warnings about an unauthorized agent calling teams about a potential deal and public denials about the previous two points. It’s been a whole thing!
Beckham’s signing, despite the presence of potential suitors across the league (he met with another team with quarterback turmoil to work out, the New York Jets, earlier in the week) can be viewed one of two ways. It could be an enticement for Jackson to settle in for 2023 and rebuild his value after two seasons marred by injury and a disappointing drop in overall efficiency. Since 2021 he’s ranked just 15th among 33 starting quarterbacks when it comes to expected points added (EPA) per play:
via RBSDM.com and the author
Of course, that all happened over a stretch where he had Mark Andrews, one year of Hollywood Brown and a bunch of cardboard cutouts of Danny DeVito as his targets. OBJ isn’t a panacea for what’s ailing Jackson, but signing him could offer the chance for the former MVP to regain the momentum and mojo he’s lacked the previous two seasons. This could either juice his trade value in 2024 or convince both sides he’s worth a more lucrative deal.
The cynical way of viewing things is that this deal offers Baltimore plausible deniability in case of a breakup. After hanging his quarterback out to dry last season, general manager Eric DeCosta can say he ponied up the cash to bring Odell Beckham to town and it still wasn’t enough to keep Jackson happy. And if OBJ struggles like a 30-year-old wide receiver coming off an injury that cost him the entire preceding season might, it could dent Jackson’s perceived value and make losing him a little more palatable in the state of Maryland.
You normally wouldn’t want a player you’re trying to trade to lower his value, but Jackson’s stock isn’t especially high at the moment (see the chart above). His trade market after getting the non-exclusive franchise tag is defined by teams saying they *don’t* want to make a move for him rather than offering him a potential contract (curious, yes. And maybe there’s a second “C” word that could define it … but we’re not gonna get into it here). The Ravens have made an unusual bet by backing off negotiations with a highlight reel quarterback in the first place; it’s possible going unorthodox is their only play.
In either case, this one-year contract is an easy win for management. It shifts the focus back to the quarterback who doesn’t want to play there and presses him to make a statement. Of course, Jackson hasn’t been shy throughout this process and it may take something as simple as a cryptic eyes emoji Tweet to keep the two sides in stalemate. UPDATE: Or this:
At the very least, this was a sensible move. Baltimore needed wide receivers. Beckham was the best remaining option in free agency and might be the most impactful available wideout to sign this spring. But it’s also possible his addition changes nothing, leaves an understocked receiving corps still undermanned and does little to bridge the gap between a 26-year-old former MVP and the team that can’t figure out what to do with him.
So hey, Odell Beckham Jr. is a Baltimore Raven. Either he knows something we don’t about the team’s plans at quarterback or DeCosta just offered him a boatload more money than anyone else. Either way, the drama in Maryland rolls on.
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By signing the former Cleveland Browns wide receiver, the Baltimore Ravens are perhaps offering an olive branch to Lamar Jackson by bringing in Odell Beckham Jr. And it turns out, the signing of Beckham Jr. is a rather expensive olive branch.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Ravens backed up the Brinks truck for Beckham Jr., giving him $15 million in guaranteed money. The breakdown of the contract includes a $1.165 million base salary, a $13.835 million signing bonus, and an extra $3 million in reachable incentives.
They got a new offensive coordinator, and now a new wide receiver. The question remains: can the Ravens mend fences with their quarterback?
The former Browns wide receiver joins a division foe.
After a tumultuous exit with the Cleveland Browns, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. went on to join the Los Angeles Rams. He was a key factor in their passing attack and even brought home a Super Bowl ring. After tearing his ACL in the Super Bowl, however, Beckham Jr. sat out all of 2022. He now joins a divisional rival (despite interest from the Browns this offseason), signing a one-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens.
On a deal worth up to $18 million, Beckham Jr. now reunites with offensive coordinator Todd Monken, who spent time together with the Browns in 2019. If the Ravens can mend fences with Lamar Jackson, there is a good deal of intrigue to see what that offense can look like with Monken running the show.
The #Jets long-awaited meeting with WR Odell Beckham Jr will be multi-faceted. It will include not only a physical but also a thorough discussion of what to expect in an Aaron Rodgers-led offense with a deep WR room. How will it all fit together is a big point of discussion.
WR Odell Beckham, Jr. is scheduled to visit the #Jets on Monday, per @JosinaAnderson. The two sides had been discussing a visit for about 3 weeks. Presumably, a physical will be part of it. That’s a key, considering his ACL surgeries.
If he signed with the Jets, Beckham would join former Green Bay Packers wideout Allen Lazard and Kansas City Chiefs wideout Mecole Hardman as major additions to New York’s wide receiver room.
It’d be a crowded house in the Meadowlands for wideouts as 2022 first-round receiver Garrett Wilson was already set for a major role in New York’s offense before Lazard and Hardman joined him as starting options.
Veteran wide receiver Corey Davis and 2020 second-round wideout Denzel Mims could be possible cut or trade candidates if Beckham joins the team. One of those guys could hypothetically be part of a trade package that the Jets could prepare for the Green Bay Packers to acquire Rodgers.
Whether Beckham actually signs the dotted line with the Jets or takes more NFL visits very much remains to be seen. However, it’s very possible the wideout is ready to make his anticipated NFL return official.
Chris Olave reached rare air in his huge rookie season with the New Orleans Saints, matching the pace of several superstar wide receivers:
Chris Olave joined rare company in his huge rookie season with the New Orleans Saints, matching the pace of several superstar wide receivers. One of the better stats you’ll find at Pro Football Focus is yards per route run — which directly reflects how many plays receivers were making in relation to how often they were on the field.
And Olave produced one of the best rookie seasons we’ve seen in this metric over the last decade. Fantasy Life’s Ian Hartitz observed that Olave ranked up there with the likes of Odell Beckham Jr. and Justin Jefferson, having posted the fifth-highest yards per routes run metric among qualifying players (first-year pros who were targeted 50 or more times).
