14 months after winning a Super Bowl — and tearing his ACL in the process — Odell Beckham Jr. has a new team. On Sunday, he reportedly signed a one-year contract worth up to $18 million.
It’s a common sense marriage between a team with a desperate need at wide receiver and a veteran All-Pro looking to restore his value. Baltimore’s depth chart at wideout last season was so grim the four receivers to take snap in the Ravens’ Wild Card loss to the Cincinnati Bengals were Sammy Watkins, Demarcus Robinson, James Proche and Andy Isabella. Students of the game may observe that none of these players are good.
Beckham, on the other hand, is three seasons removed from his last 1,000-yard campaign. Part of that downturn is thanks to injuries and an extended period languishing with the Cleveland Browns, but he’s also 30 years old. He needs to prove he can still be the difference maker who had 21 catches for 288 yards across 3.5 postseason games while helping the Los Angeles Rams win Super Bowl 56.
The Ravens will give him the opportunity to shine. The top wideout competing for targets next to him will be Rashod Bateman, who has a ton of potential but has only played 18 games in his first two seasons as a pro. The question now is who will be throwing him the ball.
Beckham’s willingness to sign with Baltimore suggests he’s going to get to pair with 2019 unanimous MVP Lamar Jackson rather than Tyler Huntley or Anthony Brown — two players who had a 2:5 touchdown:interception ratio in relief of an injured Jackson last season. But Jackson’s standoff with the Ravens has been a long-simmering pot atop the hot stove of offseason news.
He and team executives have been unable to come to an agreement on a long term contract, leading to a one-year franchise tag for 2023. Along the way there’s been a trade request, reports of a fully guaranteed contract demand, warnings about an unauthorized agent calling teams about a potential deal and public denials about the previous two points. It’s been a whole thing!
Beckham’s signing, despite the presence of potential suitors across the league (he met with another team with quarterback turmoil to work out, the New York Jets, earlier in the week) can be viewed one of two ways. It could be an enticement for Jackson to settle in for 2023 and rebuild his value after two seasons marred by injury and a disappointing drop in overall efficiency. Since 2021 he’s ranked just 15th among 33 starting quarterbacks when it comes to expected points added (EPA) per play:
Of course, that all happened over a stretch where he had Mark Andrews, one year of Hollywood Brown and a bunch of cardboard cutouts of Danny DeVito as his targets. OBJ isn’t a panacea for what’s ailing Jackson, but signing him could offer the chance for the former MVP to regain the momentum and mojo he’s lacked the previous two seasons. This could either juice his trade value in 2024 or convince both sides he’s worth a more lucrative deal.
The cynical way of viewing things is that this deal offers Baltimore plausible deniability in case of a breakup. After hanging his quarterback out to dry last season, general manager Eric DeCosta can say he ponied up the cash to bring Odell Beckham to town and it still wasn’t enough to keep Jackson happy. And if OBJ struggles like a 30-year-old wide receiver coming off an injury that cost him the entire preceding season might, it could dent Jackson’s perceived value and make losing him a little more palatable in the state of Maryland.
You normally wouldn’t want a player you’re trying to trade to lower his value, but Jackson’s stock isn’t especially high at the moment (see the chart above). His trade market after getting the non-exclusive franchise tag is defined by teams saying they *don’t* want to make a move for him rather than offering him a potential contract (curious, yes. And maybe there’s a second “C” word that could define it … but we’re not gonna get into it here). The Ravens have made an unusual bet by backing off negotiations with a highlight reel quarterback in the first place; it’s possible going unorthodox is their only play.
In either case, this one-year contract is an easy win for management. It shifts the focus back to the quarterback who doesn’t want to play there and presses him to make a statement. Of course, Jackson hasn’t been shy throughout this process and it may take something as simple as a cryptic eyes emoji Tweet to keep the two sides in stalemate. UPDATE: Or this:
Lamar & @obj 👀
(via @Lj_era8) pic.twitter.com/2Bz77T71cs
— NFL (@NFL) April 10, 2023
At the very least, this was a sensible move. Baltimore needed wide receivers. Beckham was the best remaining option in free agency and might be the most impactful available wideout to sign this spring. But it’s also possible his addition changes nothing, leaves an understocked receiving corps still undermanned and does little to bridge the gap between a 26-year-old former MVP and the team that can’t figure out what to do with him.
So hey, Odell Beckham Jr. is a Baltimore Raven. Either he knows something we don’t about the team’s plans at quarterback or DeCosta just offered him a boatload more money than anyone else. Either way, the drama in Maryland rolls on.
