‘O’ BEHAVE!
Mara: No sense of urgency to ink Odell
Giants co-owner John Mara remained lukewarm on the matter of Odell Beckham Jr.’s contract negotiations Tuesday night when asked if there were a sense of urgency to get OBJ’s new deal done.
“I wouldn’t say a sense of urgency,” Mara said before walking in to the 25th Anniversary Gridiron Gala at the Hilton Midtown presented by the United Way of New York City, the Giants and Jets. “The contract will get done when it’s supposed to get done. I think that’s the Dave Gettleman line. I’m gonna adopt that I think, all spring, all summer, as long as it takes.”
Beckham showed for the voluntary portion of the Giants’ early offseason workouts, a show of good faith after Gettleman, the Giants’ GM, discussed trading him with other NFL clubs. Mara, who last spoke at the NFL Owners Meetings in late March when he couldn’t guarantee Beckham would still be on the team this fall, said of Beckham showing up to workouts: “I was happy to see him.”
Mara also reiterated his position on keeping Beckham a Giant long-term as “I hope so.” But words are only that until the Giants take action, and Mara had another interesting answer when asked if OBJ’s contract is a priority considering the distractions that could occur if the club doesn’t take care of business.
“It’s not the first contract negotiation we’ve ever had,” Mara said firmly. “It’ll get done when it’s supposed to get done.”
Of taking Barkley, Mara said: “He was the No. 1 player on the board. Everybody felt like he was the best player in the draft, so there wasn’t much doubt about it.” Asked if he had reservations not using the pick on a quarterback, the Giants coowner added: “You always have reservations, but the opinion in our draft room was unanimous that he was the best player in the draft so I felt very comfortable going with that.”
Mara said in summary he is “very happy” with the draft.
“We think we got better but we’ll see,” he said.