HOLLYWOOD IF HE COULD!
ORLANDO — Broadway Beckham Goes Hollywood could be Steve Tisch’s next movie. Rams coach Sean McVay was careful Tuesday not to give the Giants any ammunition to file tampering charges, but Los Angeles’ interest in trading for Odell Beckham Jr., is real. Very real. The Giants’ interest in trading him is to be determined. Nobody can prevent a team from calling and the team on the receiving end will always listen. When there’s conversation, anything can happen. McVay, the new state of the art offensive coach in the NFL, led the Rams to the NFC West title and their first playoff berth since 2004 in his first year on the job in 2017. He was named coach of the year. He has Jared Goff, one of the best young quarterbacks, and running back Todd Gurley, the offensive player of the year. OBJ would complete the Triplets, giving him his own Aikman, Smith and Irvin. Can it work? “As long as we have a lot of snaps a game, I think we can keep everybody happy, if that’s the case,” McVay said. There are three elements to Beckham being traded to the Rams that must be satisfied for this to happen: l Do the Rams want Beckham to add to McVay’s offense? Yes. Definitely.
l Does Beckham want to play for the Rams? One source told me Beckham has told a couple of Rams players he wants in. He does love New York, so his feeling for the Rams could quite possibly be only if the Giants trade him. The Rams are going to want to get him signed to a long-term extension to avoid playing the franchise tag game with him in 2019 and 2020 after he plays for the $8.4 million fifth-year option.
l Do the Giants even want to trade Beckham? Pat Shurmur desperately wants an opportunity to coach Beckham and give him some tough love to help him grow up. He’s in love with his talent. John Mara has backed off being in a rush to sign a check for $50 million guaranteed and it doesn’t take much to see he’s grown weary of Beckham’s childish act. The Giants don’t want to trade Beckham but if they feel he is poisoning the locker room with his selfish behavior, they could be ready to move on.
Of course, from a football standpoint, it makes no sense for the Giants to get rid of OBJ. He’s a once in a generation player. He is the most explosive offensive weapon in team history. Mara is a patient man — he learned that from his father — but every man has his limits. Mara’s talks with Beckham have not made an impact.
If he gets traded, Beckham to the Rams makes sense. Los Angeles GM Les Snead is not afraid to deal. Already this offseason, he’s traded for cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib, traded away defensive end Robert Quinn and just invested $14 million in Ndamukong Suh. Peters, Talib and Suh all arrive with character questions.
OBJ spends his offseason in LA when he’s not getting videoed in Paris hotel rooms with models he just met, so presumably if he’s traded away, the Rams will be his preferred destination. The Rams own the 23rd pick in the first round. That’s the starting point for negotiations. They don’t have a secondround pick. That went to the Bills last year for Sammy Watkins, whom they allowed to leave as a free agent. He signed with Kansas City. The Giants should demand next year’s No. 1 as well.
If GM Dave Gettleman is going to trade Beckham, he will open up the bidding. The 49ers, with the ninth pick, should want OBJ as a weapon for Jimmy Garoppolo. The Patriots own the Niners’ second-round pick in the Garoppolo trade, but the Niners own the Saints second-round pick after an exchange of picks during last year’s draft.
The Giants should demand two firstround picks in any OBJ trade. That’s what Bill Parcells received for Keyshawn Johnson when he traded him to the Bucs in 2000. Tampa had the 13th and 27th picks in the first round. Parcells was convinced Johnson would hold out that summer and didn’t want to burden rookie coach Al Groh with the distraction.
Eventually, Mara and Tisch may not want Shurmur to have to deal with the daily Beckham questions if he holds out of camp. The difference with Keyshawn is he was not showing his immaturity on an almost daily basis. Beckham has not been arrested or gotten into trouble off the field, but he continues to do things, like putting himself in that situation in Paris with the hotel room video, that have the Giants wondering if he’s ever going to get it.
There was an NFL Network report Monday that said Beckham will not show up for the Giants or anybody else without a new contract. Up close, OBJ’s act seems much worse to the Giants than it would to the Rams, because viewed from a distance going on a boat trip to Miami less than one week before playoffs doesn’t seem so bad, but the Giants know the damage it did to their chances in Green Bay.
“Hypothetically, a player of his caliber can kind of really do everything,” McVay said. “We don’t really get into the situations of discussing players that are under contract with any other team, just out of respect for tampering and the things that come with that.”
McVay wants players who love football. Beckham checks that box. If the Giants are going to trade Beckham, the deadline is the first round of the April 26 draft. If they are going to dump their best player, they need an immediate return.