Even following the addition of veteran Golden Tate, many wondered how the New York Giants would be able to replace the fire, energy and production of wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who now calls the Cleveland Browns home.
Despite numbers showing the Giants’ offensive actually performed at a higher rate without Beckham, most experts have the unit pegged as one that will regress in 2019.
Cody Latimer disagrees, noting that the unselfishness of the room will only serve to benefit the Giants.
“Anybody can get the ball,” Latimer told the New York Post. “You’re open, you don’t get it, that means somebody else is getting it and you’re hoping they make a play. We got an unselfish room in there. We don’t really care or actually don’t talk about it at all, who’s getting the ball.
“It’s a group effort. The group can be dominant, period.”
While it’s hard to argue that Beckham is anything but the most dominant receiver in football, sometimes it all boils down to fit — and Beckham would be the first to tell you there was no longer a fit in New York.
It often felt as if Eli Manning was forcing the ball to Beckham to keep him satisfied, which rarely seemed to work anyway. That led to some displays of poor body language that later began to spread to other players.
As much as Beckham was loved in the Giants’ locker-room, the team may actually be better off without him on the field — at least Cody Latimer certainly seems to think so.
