Good news for OBJ

catches, 94.1 yards and .80 touchdowns per game. Evans (61 games) signed Friday’s contract having averaged five catches, 75 yards and .52 TDs per game, and Hopkins (64 games) at signing last summer had averaged 4.9 catches, 70.1 yards and .35 TDs.

The Steelers’ Brown, actually, even when he signed his four-year, $68 million extension in Feb. 2017, had sub-Beckham career numbers at 6.2 catches, 82.9 yards and .49 TDs per game — albeit in a 101-game sample size.

I talked to some people on the business side of the sport this week who said, well, if the Giants are prepared to pay $18 million for Beckham and he wants $20 million, what’s the harm in giving him the money he wants because you also know he’s worth it from a business perspective (fans in the seats, the Giant and Beckham brand, etc.).

Then again, from the Giants’ point of view, they’ll want to see that he’s 100 percent healthy, and presumably also want assurances — perhaps built into the contract — that he’ll behave and fall in line within the new culture, or else. here are plenty of numbers out there to create logical parameters for the Giants and Beckham to get a deal done. But with a five-year, $25 million Nike contract already under Beckham’s belt, it now could be a question of how far Beckham pushes whatever leverage that gives him — along with his value to the team — and whether the Giants conclude that they’re comfortable stretching a bit outside of their preferred range to pay a once-in-alifetime player.

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