Odell Beckham back as dynamic as ever and deserving of a new deal

Eli Manning yelled out the signals and took the snap, dropping back and looking downfield for a receiver. No one was open.

The Giants’ quarterback then sidestepped an onrushing defensive lineman and scrambled to his right to buy time. Once Manning moved out of the pocket, Beckham adjusted his route near the back of the end zone, racing toward the right corner. Manning delivered the pass, and Beckham extended his body, snatched the ball out of the air and got two feet in bounds for the touchdown.

It was only a practice drill on Friday, but the connection was meaningful nonetheless. Beckham was back on the field, looking every bit as dynamic as he had been before wrecking his ankle in a horrific moment last October.

“It’s still always there,” Beckham said of being mindful about the injury. “But I’m getting back close to 100 [percent] as I can for right now. It’s been a long process.”

But it appears to be a successful one. At many levels.

Physically, Beckham is almost all the way back, giving the Giants one of the most vibrant offensive weapons in football. Mentally, he seems to be in a good place, having stayed mostly out of the news in terms of off-field incidents. After appearing in a video that went viral in March -- in which he is seen in bed with a woman who is using a credit card to divide up a white powdery substance – Beckham has done as Giants owner John Mara has asked. Namely to stop putting himself in these compromising situations and to put football first in his life.

Mara was so incensed at seeing that video that he floated the idea of trading Beckham, and there was a media frenzy at the NFL owners’ meetings in March, especially after word got out the Rams might be interested. But the fact is the Giants had no intention of trading Beckham, and Mara’s ire was more a signal to Beckham that he needed to shape up before the team would engage in serious discussions about a new contract.

Beckham has done his part, and the fact that he showed up to camp without a new deal and is participating in drills sends the kind of message that he is serious about his intentions. Beckham’s agent was in town this week to speak with the Giants about a new deal, and there is every reason to believe he will get his just rewards after outplaying his rookie contract.

He once talked about becoming the highest paid player in the game, something that was never going to happen in a league where quarterbacks are at the top of the contractual food chain. But with a market having been set for the top receivers in the game with new deals in recent months, it shouldn’t be hard for the two sides to find a middle ground.

“I mean, who doesn’t want to get more money?” Beckham said Saturday in his first comments to Giants reporters since a few days before he was injured in a Week 5 game against the Chargers. “You just have to be realistic with yourself. I’ll just let them figure it out. Whenever it happens, it’ll happen.”

Beckham is parroting general manager Dave Gettleman’s “whenever it happens, it’ll happen” line, another indication that he is on board with the process. The Giants have long been known as one of the fairest teams in pro sports when it comes to rewarding their star players, and now that Beckham has done as Mara asked and toned down his act, there’s no reason a deal can’t be worked out sometime before the start of the regular season.

First-year coach Pat Shurmur has been smart with Beckham in camp so far, although it will be interesting to see how much Beckham plays in the preseason. If he plays at all. Beckham suffered an ankle injury last summer in an exhibition game against the Browns, and it seems wise for both sides that he not risk further injury in games that don’t count. Beckham is simply too valuable a player to be lost in the name of getting him warmed up for the regular season.

Beckham expressed optimism about this year’s team, and it’s a reasonable opinion, given the additions from the offseason, as well as the new coaching staff.

“It’s going to be a good team,” he said.

It will be an even better team with Beckham in the lineup. Of that, there is no doubt.

And if he can control his emotions instead of engaging in unnecessary behavior – on and off the field – then the Giants can be that much more confident that their forthcoming investment in a new deal will be worth it.

“It was a lot of pain I went through in the last 10 months,” he said. “Just kind of taking it day by day and trying to make my mindset that every day I wake up I’m going to be happy. I’m going to do this right, I’m going to do the very best that I can, and whatever it is, whatever it is that I was doing, just change my mindset. It’s helped me out a lot with everything.”

The Giants hope he’s right. There’s about to be a lot of money riding on it.