BALTIMORE — If Odell Beckham Jr. was not the best wide receiver in the world, he did not have to stand behind more than two or three people in line.
The year was 2016, and Beckham, 24 years old, was finishing up his third NFL season. Since he was drafted 12th overall out of LSU, he had never failed to make the Pro Bowl, never failed to reach at least 90 catches, 1,300 yards and 10 touchdowns over a 16-game schedule. If anything, his highlights — who could ever forget the one-handed, full-extension touchdown catch against the Dallas Cowboys? — lit up imaginations even more than his statistics.
That version of Beckham was such a phenomenon that his name still carries enormous weight with NFL fans and players. This became evident as soon as the Ravens announced they had signed the 30-year-old wide receiver on Sunday afternoon. A pall lifted for fans who had suffered through months of unsettling news regarding the future of franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson. Beckham’s new teammates, including former on-field sparring partner Marlon Humphrey, took to social media to proclaim their excitement. Even Jackson, whose last public utterance about the Ravens was a trade request, hinted that he and Beckham were brewing plans for a Super Bowl run.
But 2016, the last year Beckham produced like a superstar over a full season, was eons ago in NFL terms. Jackson became the youngest Heisman Trophy winner in history that December. Humphrey was preparing to play against Clemson for a national championship before he entered the draft. Roquan Smith and Mark Andrews had just established themselves as college starters.
Beckham has touched his past glory at times over the last six seasons, most notably when he helped the Los Angeles Rams win a Super Bowl with a string of excellent playoff performances in 2021. But there is risk in handing him a reported $15 million guarantee that could saddle the Ravens with dead money down the line thanks to the void years the team used to fit him into its 2023 salary cap. A pessimist might see Beckham as a more expensive, more ballyhooed version of the faded stars — DeSean Jackson, Sammy Watkins, Dez Bryant, Michael Crabtree, Jeremy Maclin — who could not cure what ailed the Ravens’ wide receiver room in recent seasons.
If this signing nudges Jackson away from his insistence on breaking up with the Ravens, it would become a victory regardless of how much Beckham produces on the field. But that’s just speculation. For now, it’s fair to ask what the team can expect from its short-term investment in one of the most famous wide receivers in recent NFL history.
The first order of business for Beckham is to show he’s recovered from the torn ACL that cost him the entire 2022 season. He suffered the injury in the Rams’ Super Bowl victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, about 16 months after he hurt the same knee while playing for the Cleveland Browns. Wide receivers such as Chris Godwin, Keenan Allen and Jordy Nelson have posted 1,000-yard seasons after returning from ACL tears, but a 2021 study published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine found that the injury generally leads to significant declines in production at the position. The Ravens are betting that with a year and a half of recovery time under his belt, Beckham will be as close to peak health as possible for the 2023 opener.
Even so, his career difficulties began well before his knee gave out.
After his dazzling first three seasons, he fractured his left ankle in the fifth game of the 2017 season, finishing that shortened campaign with 25 catches for 302 yards and three touchdowns. The New York Giants nonetheless signed him to a $95 million extension, and he returned to something like peak form in 2018, averaging 87.7 receiving yards per game, on par with his 2016 production. He even threw two touchdown passes. But a quadriceps injury sidelined him for the last four games.
Beckham’s relationship with Giants team officials, including co-owner John Mara, had frayed by that point and in March 2019, he went to the Browns in a blockbuster trade (current Ravens guard Kevin Zeitler was among the players and picks sent to New York). The move prompted defensive end Myles Garrett to declare Cleveland a sudden favorite in the AFC North, but the reality of Beckham’s time in his new home proved more complicated. Though he played in all 16 games and scored an 89-yard touchdown in his second outing for the Browns, he often seemed to vanish from coach Freddie Kitchens’ game plan. He and Humphrey fought on the field in Baltimore after the Ravens held him to two catches, and he gave vague answers later in the season when asked if he would return for a second year with the Browns, who finished 6-10.
Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken held the same job with Cleveland in 2019, and he largely absolved Beckham of blame when asked in February about his former wide receiver: “He’s like every skill player; he’s no different — I don’t know why everybody gets pissed off — like, he wants the ball. Well, really? I don’t know where I’ve been where a great player didn’t want the ball. … I think it’s awesome.”
Monken raved about Beckham’s competitive nature and “twitchy” athleticism, leaving little doubt he would look forward to a reunion, which is now reality.
Beckham did return to the Browns for the 2020 season and produced a few big games early in the season. But he tore his ACL in the seventh game of the year and was back to feeling underused — his father posted a video on social media of Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield not targeting him — when he resumed playing in 2021. The Browns released him in November, with general manager Andrew Berry saying, “we’ve just reached a point where it is best that we move forward as a team without Odell.”
The Rams scooped him up a week later, and Beckham was essential to their Super Bowl run, catching nine passes for 113 yards in a tense NFC championship game victory over the San Francisco 49ers and two for 52 yards, including a touchdown, before he tore his ACL in the Super Bowl. “He was awesome from the second into our facility,” quarterback Matthew Stafford told ESPN. Rams coach Sean McVay said he was interested in bringing Beckham back to Los Angeles as recently as last month. The New York Jets were also wooing him when the Ravens made their decisive offer.
So there are smart people in other NFL cities who believe the Ravens have done more than pull another faded star off the scrap heap. At the same time, we can look at Beckham’s past six seasons and say they have been defined more by injuries, acrimonious splits and social media kerfuffles than by the brilliance he flashed so routinely from 2014 to 2016.
The Ravens are betting Beckham can again be that long-armed, highlight-reeling acrobat and that his luster might be enough to invigorate Jackson, at least for 2023. Make no mistake though; it is a bet.
