NO HOPE FOR CHANGE
Maturity needs to finally catch on
Can Odell Beckham focus on being great instead of focusing on his alter ego OBJ? Beckham is a special talent — he might already be the best offensive player in Giants history — but even his mentor, Hall of Famer Cris Carter, who worked him hard in Los Angeles the last few months when OBJ was boycotting OTAs, admits this week he doesn’t know if Beckham can put the nonsense aside to put himself in the category right below Jerry Rice as an all-time great.
If Carter isn’t sure Beckham will mature, then the Giants are allowed not to be sure and perhaps want to see evidence that he’s changed before giving him a new contract. Carter has been around OBJ more in the offseason than any of his teammates or coaches and his observations carry a lot of credibility. Why does he have some doubt? “The way he’s reacted, letting Josh Norman get him off his game, the other things that get him off his game that he doesn’t need to do,” Carter told the Daily News. “When LeBron was in Cleveland, he was in high school. When he went to Miami, that was college. Now LeBron is in graduate school back in Cleveland. Odell went to college and it’s been an education in New York. How does he get to where LeBron is now and get to graduate school and grow up without changing the venue?”
Beckham mentioned several times Tuesday at mini-camp that he used his time away to work on growing and maturing.
“You just have time to reflect on life and be able to learn new things, so it was a great process for me and I definitely enjoyed it,” he said.
There were always two sides to Lawrence Taylor, both of them named LT. There was the LT who was unstoppable on the field and the LT who was a train wreck off the field. Imagine how much better LT the football player would have been if LT the partier ever got any sleep and stayed away from drugs.
Giants co-owner John Mara has already said he wants Beckham to play his entire career with the Giants. Beckham is not going to find a better place than New York to promote his brand. Do you think Nike would pay him close to $6 million a year if he were playing in Cleveland or Houston or Pittsburgh?
Carter was all-in on him being a noshow for OTAs and all-in on him showing up Tuesday for the mandatory three-day minicamp and then for training camp in six weeks when the fine meter starts running if you skip. If it’s mandatory, Carter says Beckham needs to show up. He’s very confident Beckham got in great work in California.
Beckham is going into his fourth season, at least one year ahead of when the top receivers in the NFL have received new contracts. But the Giants deserve the chance to judge his behavior to see if he’s listened to Jerry Reese’s warning to grow up before giving him life-changing money. No more kissing the kicking net. No more temper tantrums. No more boat trips. No more punching his fist through the wall.
Carter advised Beckham not to make a public stink about his contract at minicamp and training camp or during the season. Just go play. “If I was him, this would be my best year and I’m trying to rip the league up, then I think we could come to a resolution,” he said.
The Giants have fixed costs with Beckham for the next year at $1.8 million and his fifth-year option at $8.4 million. That’s $10.2 million over the next two years, an average of $5.1 million, which is one of the great bargains in the NFL. If Beckham behaves himself this season, and that includes staying in the metropolitan area seven days before the Giants’ first playoff game, and puts up his usual great numbers, then by next March, I think he will have a new sixyear, $115 million contract with $50 million guaranteed.
Why should the Giants step up and give him a new deal after just three years when they are just playing by the rules? It’s not an insult. It’s the way the system was designed. If Beckham wasn’t a first-round pick, there would be no fifth-year option, but he could still be franchised after four years. Because he has the fifth-year option, he can be franchised after his fifth and sixth seasons.
I don’t think it will come to the franchise tag, which creates ill will. OBJ should have his new deal next year, if not sooner. He will still get to the big money quicker than if he were a baseball player. They don’t become free agents until after their sixth season.
Carter worked on OBJ’s football skills and his mind during the offseason. Carter didn’t get paid a dime. It’s his way of paying it forward after players from the past helped him. He says there will never be another Rice — “God only made one of them” — and what separated him was his approach.
“Jerry Rice was so focused that no organization, no rumor, would ever get him off the trail of greatness. He was a hound dog on the trail, better than anybody I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I tried to tell Odell the difference between Jerry and everybody else is focus, then conditioning, then when I get in the game, it’s making plays and the bigger the game, the better I play. It starts with focus.” How good can Beckham be? “How focused will he be trying to be the greatest?” Carter said. “The most talented guys after Jerry in the last 20 years are Randy (Moss), T.O., Calvin (Johnson), (Larry) Fitzgerald and OBJ. Julio (Jones) stayed on the path to greatness. Randy Moss veered off the path. It’s a matter of maturing, dedication, continuing to work on your craft. Beckham works really, really hard, He’s got all that small stuff about the game and is willing to do it to be great.”
If Beckham can be himself on the field and focus on putting OBJ in storage for a couple of years, he won’t have to worry about the Giants paying him.