NEW YORK — Odell Beckham Jr.’s Giants visit kicked off Thursday evening with a sit-down dinner with team brass on the first leg of the wide receiver’s free-agent tour, sources said.
OBJ is then scheduled to stop by the Giants’ facility on Friday morning and undergo a physical exam, as well.
He is supposed to fly north to see the Buffalo Bills later Friday and then travel south to visit the Dallas Cowboys on Monday, as well.
But Bills pass rusher Von Miller, Beckham’s good friend, was placed on injured reserve on Thursday, which means Miller is sidelined at least four weeks.
So it will be interesting to see how that impacts Beckham’s desire to play for Buffalo, which may have a good team but doesn’t have the national exposure or appeal of New York or Dallas.
The primary factor in Beckham’s decision is expected to be the strength of the contract offer, which is one reason why the Cowboys are the favorite to land him.
Dallas owner Jerry Jones has put on a full-court recruiting press and carries more salary cap space at the moment ($6.3 million) than the Giants ($2.7 million) or any of Beckham’s other known suitors.
The San Francisco 49ers ($6.0 million) still seem like a possible sleeper if OBJ leaves Dallas without a deal next week. Beckham and the Niners have flirted over the idea of a union before, and San Fran is a Super Bowl contender with the league’s top defense and Christian McCaffrey added at the trade deadline.
The Giants have a chance, though, because New York is home for Beckham, and he wants this next signing to set him up for the next chapter in his career.
Seeking a multi-year contract is the way Beckham could acquire guaranteed money for next season from a cap-strapped team like the Giants or the Cowboys, while joining them immediately for this season’s stretch run to try and help them win now.
His health in these physical exams, after rehabbing from a second torn left ACL, will have everything to do with what someone like Giants GM Joe Schoen or the Cowboys’ Jones would offer him.
Schoen could conceivably fit Beckham on the Giants’ cap-strapped roster this season by using incentives and signing bonus money to kick cap hits into next season. He only would have to pay Beckham the prorated value of the contract he receives, too.
In other words, if the Giants signed Beckham next Tuesday to a contract like the Cowboys’ Michael Gallup ($11.5 million), they’d only have to pay him the cash for the five remaining games ($3.1 million total) and could dramatically reduce the 2022 actual cap hit with the signing bonus money or incentives.
Of course, it’s difficult to imagine Schoen paying Beckham given how tightly he has managed the Giants’ finances and stuck to the plan of clearing the budget and the decks for 2023 and beyond.
Don’t forget, though, that Schoen and the Giants were the most aggressive suitor for the Denver Broncos’ Jerry Jeudy at the trade deadline when that receiver’s name started floating around, until the Broncos stopped listening.
And don’t discount the relationship John Mara and Beckham have.
Don’t forget this is OBJ’s true home.
