Odell Beckham Jr. named NFL's Offensive Rookie of the Month for December
New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. makes a one-handed catch for a touchdown against Dallas Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr in the second quarter of an NFL game, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014, in East Rutherford, N.J. Credit: AP / Kathy Willens
Just a few more hours left in the "Year of Odell," but that’s plenty of time for one more honor.
Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Month for December, making him the first player to ever win the award in consecutive months. Only Anquan Boldin won it twice in the same year.
Beckham’s 606 receiving yards in December were the most by any rookie in any month in NFL history. He finished the season with 91 catches for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns, all of them Giants rookie records and all of them leading all rookies in the NFL (although Mike Evans did tie him in touchdowns).
And he did it while missing four games at the start of the season (which may be the only reason he was not named Rookie of the Month in September).
Beckham seems to be a shoe-in to win the Rookie of the Year Award when it is presented on Jan. 31 at the NFL Honors show in Arizona.
“It was exciting to me,” John Mara said of watching Beckham this season. “The energy and passion that he brought to our team was pretty startling. I was very frustrated for a while. He missed all of training camp and then he is missing the first four games of the season and we haven’t even seen him on the field. I have no idea what we have. Then, all of sudden, he starts making plays and it was pretty exciting. For me, you would have to go back to 1981 before we were that excited about a rookie coming in and what he could possibly mean to this franchise. I hesitate to say that because I do not want to put that much pressure on him, but he certainly has brought a lot to this organization.”
That 1981 reference was about Lawrence Taylor, the only Giant ever to win an AP Rookie of the Year Award.
So far.
