Why the Giants shouldn't consider an Odell Beckham Jr. reunion
Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. waits on the field during a media timeout in the fourth quarter of an NFL game against the Buccaneers at MetLife Stadium on Nov. 18, 2018. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
One of the issues with being a historically rich franchise is the burden that comes from such a trove of ingrained memories. The Giants and their fans always have been proud of their past, perhaps too much so. That nostalgia has tended to impair the team’s vision when it has strived to look forward. The attic is so crammed with nearly a century of experience that it can start to ooze into the living space and muddy the recognition of what is past and what is present.
That’s what’s been so refreshing about these past few months. It’s all about the future and the promise of new successes with new ways of thinking. For too long the Giants were the hoarders of the NFL, unable to let go of their old ways and theories that yes, produced a number of exciting moments and championships, but also moored the organization to those outdated ideas. They had clung to a path to victory that twice brought them Super Bowl titles this century, the improbability of which made them simultaneously epic but also impossible to replicate.
Then along came Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll.
There is a respect for the history of the Giants now, a healthy acknowledgment and pride in it, but it is no longer the guiding principle by which the team operates. Semper prorsum is the new motto (Latin for “forever forward” by the way).
That is why the Giants should not sign Odell Beckham Jr.
Not because he would not help this team (given the status of the wide receiver corps he almost certainly would no matter what his physical abilities coming off his second ACL reconstruction turn out to be). It’s not because of the messy divorce that sent Beckham from New York to Cleveland and eventually Los Angeles. It’s not because he would be a distraction the way he was perceived to be during his first stint here when he was a young showman performing interpretive dance moves after each touchdown, carrying on strange relationships with kicking nets and making the team’s brass cringe each time he spouted off on television or social media. He is 30 years old now, a father, a Super Bowl-winner himself, and by all accounts much more mature.
It is because these Giants are just starting to form their own identity, detached from the past and lightened by the unloading of it. There is no good reason to reach back into the pile of dusty answers in response to current problems.
The scars from the many tattoo removal lasers Schoen and Daboll have spent this past year wielding are almost healed. Re-inking the same designs over them would be absurd.
These Giants don’t even know who their quarterback will be next season. They seem fairly certain Saquon Barkley will be here as their running back, but that’s not a sure thing. Sterling Shepard, who along with Barkley is one of the two current links to Beckham, is far from a lock to still be around in 2023. Having Beckham attached to this team as it rebuilds its image and its roster this coming offseason will only complicate and limit the wide-open options that await them in March and April.
Schoen has shown a clear awareness of what this current team is. He demonstrated it at last month’s trade deadline when he refused to dip into future resources to bolster the roster and even depleted it further to add to his stockpile of picks by sending Kadarius Toney to Kansas City. He was not fooled by the team’s surprising record. Had he felt they were one or two moves away from contending for a title he would have made those moves in October. Now, coming off a dispiriting loss to the Lions and heading into an unoptimistic Thanksgiving Day game in Dallas, he’s being proven correct. The Giants may win a few more games this season, may even make the playoffs, but they are clearly not a team on the cusp of something great. At least not in the next few months. Not to the point that adding Beckham would change their trajectory.
“We do the same stuff every week and try to be consistent regardless of results and do what is best for our team,” Daboll said on Tuesday when asked if the team’s lack of depth at receiver or the outcome of Thursday’s game in Dallas will sway the Giants’ thinking on Beckham.
The best thing for the Giants is to welcome Beckham in for a free agency meeting in the next week or so, smooth over their turbulent past, talk about old times, shake hands, and ultimately wish him luck elsewhere.
Would it have been nice if things had worked out with Beckham the first time around, if he and the old regimes had been able to coexist and he’d remained with the Giants for his entire career? Sure. Will it be hard for the Giants to see their ex with their worst enemy if Beckham signs with the Cowboys? Undoubtedly. Especially if he’s catching touchdown passes late in January and into February.
But Beckham moved on from their relationship and found success elsewhere.
It’s time for the Giants to do that themselves.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
