Dinner with Odell: Giants' Daboll mum on big meeting with Beckham
Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard, shown in 2018 as Giants teammates, could be reunited if free agent receiver chooses Big Blue. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Brian Daboll said he enjoyed his steak and fries on Thursday night, especially because the Giants were picking up the tab.
But the coach promised that dining with free-agent wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. would not distract him from preparing for Sunday’s game.
“All my time is on Washington,” Daboll said before practice on Friday. “I just got a free meal.”
Beyond that, he had little to say about the team’s visit with Beckham.
In addition to dining with Giants brass, Beckham had a medical exam and visited the team’s practice facility in the late afternoon on Friday, the first step in his free-agent tour.
He also is expected to visit the Bills and Cowboys, at a minimum, before deciding where to sign for this season and presumably beyond.
The Cowboys have been aggressive in courting Beckham, but the Giants have an edge in that they employ two former teammates who are close friends of his: Saquon Barkley and Sterling Shepard.
Shepard said on Friday that Beckham visited his home after the dinner with the front office but that the two did not discuss Beckham’s situation in depth.
“I was like, ‘Man, it would be a special thing if you came back here; the city definitely would be happy about that; it would be like old times,’ ” Shepard said.
How did Beckham respond? ‘“You’re dang right about that,’ ” Shepard quoted him as saying.
Shepard and Barkley emphasized that while they would love for Beckham to rejoin the Giants, they want what is best for him and his family.
“Knowing Odell personally, just the energy that he brings, the swagger that he plays with, the playmaking ability that he has, he’s one of my favorite players to play with or even watch,” Barkley said.
“He’s a heck of a player. The moment he steps in the locker room, he steps on a team, he automatically makes that team better.”
Beckham is 30 and coming off an ACL tear suffered in the Super Bowl in February, so it is unclear what, if anything, he can contribute this season.
Giants receivers coach Mike Groh said on Friday that he would be among those visiting with Beckham, then gushed about his abilities.
Groh said he had not previously met Beckham but did coach opposite him a few times, both during his years as an NFL coach and when Groh was at Alabama and Beckham at LSU in the early 2010s.
How did he look from the opposite sideline? “Pretty spectacular,” Groh said.
How so?
“We all know that Odell’s got unique skill, his ability and body control to be able to make plays, contested plays, the natural hands that he’s got and certainly the juice to go the distance, whether catching a deep ball or catching a short one and making a long run,” Groh said.
The question is whether Beckham still can be that player, given his age and injury history. Some NFL team soon will find out.
Notes & quotes: There were no surprises on the Giants’ final injury report. Nine players are questionable . . . Daboll said assistant general manager Brandon Brown “has been giving it to me pretty good” after Brown’s alma mater, St. Anthony’s, beat Daboll’s school, St. Francis, 27-20, in the CHSFL AAA championship game on Wednesday, scoring 27 unanswered points in the second half. “That was a tough one,” Daboll said. Did the two make a bet? “No, just bragging rights,” Daboll said. “I don’t have them.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
