BARK’ & BECK’
Barkley, Beckham can rival Steelers’ duo Bell and Brown
We’ll get a first look at Odell and Saquon, a duo that could rival Antonio Brown & Le’Veon Bell
ODELL BECKHAM Jr.’s continued offseason attendance, and Saquon Barkley’s addition to the offense, could have the Giants on the verge of unleashing a wide receiver-running back combo rivaled only by the NFL’s gold standard:
The Steelers’ Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell.
The Giants’ March trade talks of Beckham, and the continued absence of a contract extension for the star wideout, had cast doubt on the team’s ability to form such a dynamic duo. But this morning, as Beckham plans to attend the first of 10 voluntary OTA practices, head coach Pat Shurmur has reason to remain optimistic about building an offense around the dynamic Beckham and Barkley pair in his first practices mixing rookies with veterans.
“Odell’s been in and out, so he’s been around. It’s very encouraging,” Shurmur said Sunday morning, before throwing out the first pitch at Citi Field, of Beckham continuing to attend despite the unresolved contract situation. “I’ve developed a really nice relationship with him. We’re very open and honest about everything Giants and everything Odell. I’m just looking forward to him being there. There’s a lot to be learned. He’s not quite finished with his rehab, but there’s still a lot to be learned by just watching what’s going on.”
The questions now are how quickly Beckham can resume practicing (Shurmur seems to be saying he’s still not cleared) and whether GM Dave Gettleman intends to drag this out even past the point of Beckham proving he’s healthy. OBJ can only play nice for so long, one would think, if the Giants aren’t going to meet him in the middle.
That said, every day Beckham shows up is another opportunity for Shurmur to craft his offense around two explosive offensive talents in Beckham and Barkley, hopefully mirroring the effectiveness of the Steelers’ Brown and Bell.
Brown in 2012, for example, caught 66 passes in 13 games for 787 yards and five TDs, sharing targets with receivers Mike Wallace (64 catches) and Emmanuel Sanders (44 catches) and tight end Heath Miller (71 catches), complemented by RBs Jonathan Dwyer and Isaac Redman.
But in 2013, with Wallace gone to Miami and Bell in the backfield as the Steelers’ second-round pick out of Michigan, Brown’s numbers exploded (110 catches, 1,499 yards, eight TDs) and soon he, Bell and Big Ben Roethlisberger were carrying the league’s most exciting offense coordinated by Todd Haley (now with the Cleveland Browns).
In Bell’s five NFL seasons, with Brown the Steelers’ No. 1 wide receiver, Brown has been named first-team AllPro four times and Bell has made firstteam All-Pro twice. Bell has averaged
about 20 carries and five catches a game for a combined 130 yards, with 42 touchdowns in his 62 regular-season games.
And Brown has averaged 7.5 catches for 102 yards per game, and scored 52 receiving TDs in 77 games, which includes ludicrous numbers in 2014 (129 catches, 1,698 yards, career-high 13 TDs) and 2015 (136 catches for 1,698 yards, both career-highs).
Bell’s threat as a receiver, with 75 or more catches in three different seasons and a career-high 85 last year, is an especially significant part of this unstoppable dynamic in complementing Brown. And the Giants believe they have found such a multi-talented runner and receiver in Barkley to pair with Beckham.
“He’s an outstanding player,” Shurmur said of Barkley. “He’s been able to compete, and he’s only really been here for a couple of weeks. It’s gonna be fun to watch him compete with the veterans.”
That said, Beckham has produced much bigger numbers than Brown did in his first few years with the Steelers, even without a dominant Giants running back to complement him (6.66 catches, 94.13 receiving yards, nearly a TD per game at 0.81 in three-plus NFL seasons).
So there’s no telling how high OBJ’s stats could go with Barkley in town.
No one yet knows how quickly Beckham will be cleared to practice on the same field with Barkley. And it remains a mystery if Beckham’s contract impasse with the team will get in the way or prevent it from happening altogether.
But for now, Beckham continues to buy in, and so it’s OK for the Giants to dream big.