Odell Beckham on the minds of fellow WRs Jarvis Landry, Dez Bryant
Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. looks on before a game against the Chargers at MetLife Stadium on Oct. 8, 2017. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Two of the NFL’s most high-profile wide receivers are thinking a lot about Odell Beckham Jr. One of them wants to be his teammate, the other is coming to grips with the idea that he probably will not be.
Jarvis Landry, a close friend of and college teammate of Beckham’s at LSU who was traded to the Browns earlier this offseason, spoke to reporters in Cleveland on Tuesday and said he would no longer try to woo Beckham to his new team.
“I think that period is over,” Landry said of the speculation that the Giants could trade Beckham. “He is going to be a Giant for another year.”
Beyond that, of course, is anyone’s guess. Beckham is entering the final year of his rookie deal and if he does not get an extension from the Giants (or is not franchise tagged next winter) he would become a free agent.
“I hope he gets paid,” Landry said in an interview later on ESPN.
As for Beckham becoming the highest-paid player in the NFL, Landry was on board.
“He should be,” Landry said. “He deserves it, man. I watched him for years and played with him and I’m just excited . . . He deserves it.”
Landry could not engineer a reunion with Beckham this offseason, but Dez Bryant is certainly trying to become Beckham’s next wingman. And in that case it would not require a trade.
Bryant, the former Cowboy who was released late last week and is now a free agent, has suggested that he’d like to stay in the NFC East and that one of his landing spots could be the Giants.
“The Giants got a hell of a defense,” Bryant told 247Sports.com on Tuesday. “They’re going to pay OBJ, so [he’s] coming back. Playing with him, Sterling [Shepard] . . . the tight end [Evan Engram], [Eli] Manning? Crazy . . . That’d be crazy.”
Bryant even threw Penn State running back Saquon Barkley, a player some believe could be the Giants’ pick in the first round of the upcoming draft, into the potential mix of the Giants’ offense.
It’s a very unlikely scenario that the Giants will pursue Bryant. The biggest lure to signing with the Giants for the wide receiver, though, would not be the money or the chance to play with Beckham.
“If it’s somewhere else, that’s fine,” Bryant said. “But I’d like to play the Cowboys twice [a year].”
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.
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