One of the more controversial players in New York Giants history was and continues to be Odell Beckham Jr.
Although Beckham is no longer a part of the organization, having been traded during the 2019 offseason, many fans still believe Beckham should have never been dealt.
Beckham was electrifying during his time with the Giants before the injury bug started to hinder his time on the field. From winning Offensive Rookie of the Year back in 2014 to the infamous one-handed catch, Beckham quickly rose to stardom in the league.
That route to stardom would eventually lead to a five-year, $90 million contract extension with Big Blue prior to the 2018-2019 season just to be traded less than a year later.
Over the weekend, Bleacher Report released a list of contract extensions given too early and, of course, Beckham’s extension with the Giants made the list.
While Beckham performed well, he wasn’t shy about his frustrations with losing. This seemed to strain his relationship with the team, and it seemingly led to his trade—something Pro Football Talk’s Peter King noted after Beckham was dealt to the Cleveland Browns in March 2019: “From the Giants’ point of view, the reality was his talent made him uncuttable, but the energy it took to corral his greatness was something they would have preferred to live without.”
The Giants got a reasonable return—2019 first- and third-round picks, along with safety Jabrill Peppers—but they also had to eat much of Beckham’s guarantees. According to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, New York paid Beckham $21.5 million in cash with $5.5 million plus $16 million in dead money going on the 2019 cap.
The Giants acted prematurely in extending a big-personality receiver coming off a significant injury. They could have, as Barnwell pointed out, let him play out his rookie deal, franchise-tagged him in 2019 and traded him while taking a far lower financial hit. The lesson? If a team isn’t 100 percent committed to a player—and the positives, negatives and injury risks involved—re-signing them early is risky.
Despite rumors leading up to the trade, former Giants general manager Dave Gettleman continued to preach, “we didn’t sign him just to trade him.” So either Gettleman was shopping the star wide receiver despite saying otherwise or he received an offer he could not refused.
Regardless, Beckham’s extension with the Giants lasted less than a year and riddled the Giants with dead salary cap for years to come.
Even if at the time, Gettleman had plans for Beckham to be with the Giants long-term. The decision to extend Beckham looks terrible in hindsight and it is one of a quite a few negative move that will be connected to Gettleman when his tenure with the Giants is looked back upon.
Whether or not the Giants won the trade that shipped Beckham off to Cleveland is another argument but no matter how you slice it, extending Beckham was a move made too early and it looks even worse when you consider how quickly he was traded away following the extension.
