Odell Beckham Jr. making the Giants’ 53-man roster is a feel-good story. But ultimately his second iteration with the franchise will last only as long as he can be productive and add value to winning. Through training camp and preseason, Beckham has instilled belief in the Giants’ principal player personnel decision-makers, with first-year head coach John Harbaugh at the top of the hierarchy, that he can impact the team becoming a contender in the NFC East division as the first objective in ascending to Super Bowl challenger.
He looked like he was ready to help us; that was it,” said Harbaugh meeting with the media on Monday at the Giants’ training facility in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
“You just take the roster, you take the guys, you take the reps, the plays, what you need from your players going into the season, and you pick the best guys. He was one of the best guys; he earned it, he earned his spot. I mean, from beginning to end, he earned it.”
The 33-year-old wide receiver was selected by the Giants out of LSU in the 2014 NFL Draft with the 12th pick of the first round.
It seems like ages ago. Tom Coughlin was the team’s head coach.
Including Harbaugh and Mike Kafka, who led the team for the final seven games last season after Brian Daboll was fired, the franchise has had seven head coaches since Beckham’s rookie season.
The Giants’ instability mirrors Beckham’s odyssey.
He played for the Giants for five seasons before being traded to the Cleveland Browns in March of 2019, just seven months after signing a five-year, $90 million contract with New York. Following his release from the Browns less than two months into the 2021 campaign, he signed with the Los Angeles Rams, winning a Super Bowl but tearing the ACL in his left knee in the game in just the second quarter as he was on his way to possibly being named the game’s MVP; exiting with two catches for 52 yards and a touchdown.
Beckham sat out the entire 2022 season, played for the Baltimore Ravens in 2023, appeared in nine games with the Dolphins in 2024 but had only nine catches for 55 yards and was let go in December. Last October, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native who played high school football in New Orleans was suspended last October for six games for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs and was not on a roster.
Now Beckham has come full circle.
“God had a plan for me,” he introspectively shared on Monday. “The last two years I talked to y’all about just the spiritual journey that I’ve been on. The growth, the humility. Kind of walking through life over the last two years — a bit of hardships, with myself feeling, just wasn’t where I wanted to be.”
Malik Nabers, Beckham’s fellow LSU product, crystallized his teammate’s path.
“He’s put in great work. He showed every attribute and everything that he wanted to be a Giant. He wanted to be here,” said Nabers. “He wanted to come back and he had unfinished business. And we talked all the time, through the offseason and summer about things that he wanted to accomplish.”
Beckham is a mentor to the 23-year-old Nabers, who was drafted by the Giants with the 6th pick in 2024 and is the team’s most gifted wide receiver since Beckham’s early years. But Nabers is working his way back from a torn ACL in his right knee sustained last September. When healthy, he is one of the league’s most dynamic weapons, evidenced by his rookie numbers: 109 catches, the Giants’ single-season record, and 1,204 yards receiving.
Now the duo, both healing — Beckham from internal afflictions and Nabers from external injuries — hope to be pillars of the Giants’ reconstruction.
