Giants' challenge vs. Patriots: Increasing Odell Beckham Jr.'s completion percentage
Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants rushes after a catch during a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on November 8, 2015 in Tampa, Florida. Credit: Getty Images / Mike Ehrmann
Here's what Odell Beckham Jr. knows about how Bill Belichick and the Patriots are going to do to try to stop him:
"I don't know what they're going to do, to be honest."
Belichick has been known to create some crazy alignments and coverages in his defensive laboratory, and as he prepares to face Beckham for the first time, he's probably concocting plenty of ways to slow down the Giants' best playmaker. Beckham understands this and is embracing the challenge and the mystery of it.
"All you can do is go off of the film and what they do," Beckham said on Thursday. "You can see kind of what they did to [Brandon] Marshall and the other receivers as far as the doubling goes. You've seen them line up two guys over one guy as if you're about to run down on a punt. So you honestly don't know until you get out there on Sunday and you could fully see it firsthand."
Cover Beckham like he's a gunner on a punt?
"They seem to give some talented players some extra attention," Giants offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo said. "I wouldn't be surprised to see that on Sunday. We'll see how it unfolds. I imagine they'll change it up as the game goes on and, based on their tendencies, try to change up who they're paying attention to."
McAdoo said his advice to Beckham if he is double-covered like a special teamer would be to exhibit patience.
"Just come out and play our game and we can't chase anything, we have to let the game come to us," McAdoo said. "We have to have some patience with it and he'll have an opportunity during the course of the game at some point, and if you play with poise and take advantage of the opportunity when your number is called, that's all you can do."
It's no secret that the Giants will be trying to get the ball to Beckham. Last week he was targeted 17 times and caught nine passes for 105 yards. His 92 targets this season are the sixth-most in the NFL and the most on the Giants. More than a quarter of Eli Manning's 340 pass attempts this season have gone in Beckham's direction.
McAdoo said he's okay with that percentage. The one he would like to see improve is the completions on those attempts. With 59 receptions, he's catching 64.1 percent of the passes thrown to him.
"He's getting a ton of targets, a lot of opportunities," McAdoo said. "I talk to Odell and I talk to Eli, you know we're throwing him the ball a bunch, but I'd like to see that completion percentage go up. It's not high enough."
Against the Patriots, where opportunities may be limited, making the most of the times the ball does go in his direction will be even more important.
"He's going to get a lot of attention and rightfully so," McAdoo said. "We're going to have to cash in and be detailed with it and focus on the details and get our completion percentage up . . . We're going to target Odell a bunch and it's up to me, it's up to Eli, it's up to Odell, it's up to the guys blocking for him. We have to get that completion percentage up. If you're going to get a lot of targets, then we need to complete a lot of balls."
Most targeted players in the NFL and their completion percentage
Player, Targets, Receptions, Pct.
Julio Jones, ATL, 119, 80, 67.2
DeAndre Hopkins, HOU, 112, 66, 58.9
Antonio Brown, PIT, 100, 69, 69.0
Brandon Marshall, NYJ, 96, 54, 56.3
Demaryius Thomas, DEN, 93, 61, 65.6
Odell Beckham Jr., NYG, 92, 59, 64.1
(stats don't include Thursday's Jets-Bills game)
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.
