I’M GONNA GET PAID!

Mara leaves no doubt Odell will cash in with Giants Odell Beckham wants to be highest-paid player in NFL, and John Mara says Friday, ‘he’s going to get paid a lot of money’ by Big Blue.

THE GIANTS are going all-in on Odell. John Mara committed unequivocally Friday afternoon to signing star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to a lucrative longterm contract extension, possibly “sooner rather than later.” And by doing so, the Giants co-owner essentially sought to trade Beckham peace of mind in exchange for quelling a controversy that threatened to overshadow a season with Super Bowl potential for Big Blue.

“He deserves to get paid; we’re gonna pay him,” Mara said on the patio of Quest Diagnostics Training Center after a light opening training camp practice. “He’s going to get a long-term contract.”

The question now is when negotiations will begin and whether the Giants are risking too much by committing to riding the highs and lows of the mercurial and unpredictable Beckham deep into the future.

“I think that’ll happen sooner rather than later, but there’s no timetable,” Mara said of starting negotiations. “There’s no reason for us to rush into it.” But could Beckham have a new contract by this time next year? “I think that’s certainly a possibility,” Mara said. So how will he know when the right time is to enter negotiations? “When we determine that his agent is being reasonable,” Mara said with a smile. “And we have not had discussions so far, so don’t assume we’ve had any discussions so far. When we think that there’s a deal to be made, then we’ll make a deal.

“He’s gonna get paid a lot of money at the appropriate time,” Mara added. “You can argue that the appropriate time is now, but you can argue both sides of that I guess. It’ll happen when it happens.”

Beckham, 24, had said hours before Mara’s comments that he is content to “go out another year and prove myself” if that’s what it takes to solidify his value.

“I’m not here to hold out,” said Beckham, who is due to make $1.8 million this season and $8.4 million in the fifth and final year of his rookie contract in 2018. “I’m here to practice.”

But Mara assured Beckham he need do nothing else to demonstrate what he’s worth, despite the young receiver’s maturity issues on and off the field and recent playoff failure — despite Mara needing to escort Beckham into the Philadelphia Eagles’ visiting locker room in Week 16 of last season, for example, to stop Beckham from growling and screaming at a storm door.

“We’re not asking him to prove anything at this point,” Mara said of Beckham. “Just keep playing as hard as you’ve been playing and continue your growth off the field as a person, and I’m confident he’s gonna do both … He’s somebody we want here for a long time.”

Mara smirked at Beckham’s Thursday night comment in an UNINTERRUPTED video that he believes he one day will be the NFL’s “highest-paid” player. So the Giants co-owner at least stopped short of writing a blank check and entertaining any scenario in which a wide receiver would set the league’s salary record.

The top 15 annual contract averages belong to quarterbacks, led by Oakland’s Derek Carr at $25 million, and Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown leads all receivers at $17 million per year.

“I can’t think of one, no,” Mara laughed. “The quarterback is always going to be the highest-paid player.”

But Mara did say Beckham’s aspiration is “a great goal to have” and said “I don’t have a problem with him saying that.” And that’s a good thing, since Beckham said he didn’t regret his latest video at all, which he essentially intimated Friday was an exercise in promoting a website that he calls a business partner.

“I don’t regret anything ever, ever in life,” Beckham said. “Everything’s a distraction that I do, so speaking, it doesn’t really matter.”

Still, Mara explained that while Beckham’s lightning-rod star power “definitely presents some challenges, the reason his star shines so bright is he’s a tremendous player, so I’ll deal with that issue every day of the week.”

And so what the Giants and Beckham are likely looking at here is something like a five-year, $100 million contract with $50 million guaranteed, when factoring in both Beckham’s record-setting first three seasons (288 catches, 4,122 yards, 35 TDs) and the projected inflation of contracts and continued growth of the game.

This will not happen in a vacuum. Center Weston Richburg and left guard Justin Pugh are in the final years of their rookie deals. All-Pro safety Landon Collins’ contract is up after next season. They are all due raises. And Eli Manning remains under contract for three more seasons at team-high cap numbers of $19.7 million, $22.2 million and $23.2 million, respectively.

Mara, though, said he is confident the Giants could fit a Beckham extension while still carrying Manning’s money on the roster. Mara seemingly doesn’t see a choice. He reveres Beckham’s talent so much that on Friday he said Beckham’s star power was unlike anything he really has seen outside of Lawrence Taylor.

“I can’t say we saw that coming, not to this magnitude,” Mara said of Beckham’s blossoming into an NFL star. “He certainly is a star in every sense of the word. That presents certain challenges, but I’ll live with those challenges every day of the week with a player like that.”

Perhaps the most interesting part of Mara’s commitment on Friday, however, was that he didn’t have to do it. The Giants hold all the leverage in negotiations with Beckham, or at least they should.

They could control his rights hypothetically for four more seasons before signing him to a new contract by placing the franchise tag on him twice in 2019 and in 2020. Plus, Beckham admitted his record five-year, $29 million Nike endorsement deal — which could be worth $48 million over eight years when all incentives are triggered — “definitely made me comfortable,” “was helpful at the right time” and Bhelps him stay “patient.” ut instead, while Mara agreed that “there’s no urgency” to lock Beckham up long-term, he admitted the Giants also will do it because “you’d like to keep him happy.” And so that’s the concern: the Giants would be succumbing to pressure from Beckham and could be enabling his behavior just to placate him.

Unless they think it’s worth the risk. And with a pre-practice embrace of Beckham and a post-practice commitment to No. 13 as a long-time Giant, Mara demonstrated he most certainly does.

“Every time I run up to him he smiles, he’s asking, ‘How are you doing?’” Beckham said of Mara. “It’s just a good vibe I get from him.”