Odell Beckham Isn't The Problem For The Giants
Last night, Odell Beckham Jr. had unequivocally the worst game of his career. He had the second-lowest reception total and lowest yardage total of any of his 31 games in the NFL. When the Giants finally started driving and gaining momentum, he reacted poorly to (what he thought was) a late hit by screaming and bumping into an official, giving the Giants a 15-yard penalty. Coming off a bad loss to the Redskins that was highlighted by an emotional outburst on the sideline, it could not have come at a worse time.
Odell’s a lightning rod for a number of reasons. He has unique hair. He dances. He likes being famous. He’s always been a different type of guy. He has RG3-esque social media game. He plays in the biggest city in the world. The spectacular and acrobatic way he performs his position draws a lot of attention. New York sports media needs a new highly-polarizing whipping boy in the post-Alex Rodriguez era. There are a lot of reasons Odell draws as much attention as he does, and he always seems to give his haters jusssst enough to blast him.
So it was no surprise to see this morning the HOT TAKES start rolling in on what a PROBLEM is he is for this underachieving Giants team. On why he needs to PLAY FOOTBALL and FIGURE IT OUT and try to HELP THE GIANTS WIN MORE. WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIM THIS YEAR?!?!
Well let’s take a look at what’s “wrong” with Odell this season. Last year when he was a consensus Top 3 wide receiver in the league he had 24 catches, 307 yards and two touchdowns on 31 targets through the first four games of the season. Right now through four games he has 22 catches, 303 yards and 0 touchdowns on 22 targets. His production is pretty much IDENTICAL to what it was last year minus the touchdowns. And that fact MIGHT have to do with the fact that the Giants have the fourth worst Red Zone touchdown percentage in the league (a dismal 46.3%) because of absolutely idiotic playcalling that does things like throw fade routes to 5’9 running backs instead of looking to any of the Giants three stud wide receivers.
Odell Beckham did not lose the Giants the game last night. He could’ve been Randy Moss in Madden 2006 on PCP and the Giants would have lost last night AND lost against the Redskins. Lack of secondary depth lost is what’s costing the Giants games. Offensive line penalties are costing the Giants games. Eli hasn’t looked fully comfortable in the pocket all year. That’s costing the Giants games. The defense hasn’t had a single takeaway a quarter of the way through the season and has given up more third down conversions than any team in football. That’s costing the Giants games. The Giants are 6th in offensive yardage but only 27th in points meaning they don’t convert drives into points at any even CLOSE to acceptable rate. That’s costing the Giants games.
All those things are infinitely bigger problems than any single guy, and none of them can be pinned on Odell. So get LOST if you want to blame the Giants woes on a 23 year old kid who plays his heart out, wants to win more badly and competes as hard as anyone on the roster just because his antics get a lot of camera time and make for good Vines and sports talk radio bites. Odell Beckham isn’t even CLOSE to the Giants biggest problem right now, is by FAR their biggest talent, and any fan in the NFL would cut off both their pinkies and maybe their thumbs too to have them on their team for a less than $3 million cap hit.
Would I rather Odell not be so emotional? As a Giants fan, yeah that would be nice. It’s a bad look and gives people easy ammo against him. It creates a distraction in the most savage sports media market in America. Know who else were emotional, difficult wideouts? Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Cris Carter, Keyshawn Johnson, Michael Irvin, Dez Bryant, Plaxico Burress. I think their careers all turned out alright. Odell draws an inordinate attention to himself, but that’s all he draws it to, himself. He never calls out the coaching staff. He never sells out his teammates. He’s never unfairly pointed a finger or torn apart a locker room even through the nightmare that was the 2015 season. Odell isn’t the Giants problem, and as the Giants look for someone, anyone, to get them a win against Green Bay and get the season back on track, he’s the best chance of anyone to be the solution.
Twitter: @CharlieWisco