BALTIMORE — First, Lamar Jackson and Odell Beckham Jr. enjoyed dinner at Prime 112, an upscale steakhouse in Miami Beach. Then they headed a couple of miles up the road to popular nightclub LIV, where a waitress could be seen holding up a lighted sign that read “Welcome Lamar & OBJ.”
The Ravens quarterback and his newest wide receiver were already friends before they bonded over Beckham’s one-year deal reportedly worth $15 million guaranteed that was announced Easter Sunday. Jackson has yet to sign the $32.4 million nonexclusive franchise tag the Ravens placed on him last month five days after he requested to be traded, but that demand, for now, seems to have fizzled like a three-day-old bottle of champagne.
One person who knows Beckham even better than Jackson, though, is Nelson Stewart, his high school coach from Isidore Newman in New Orleans. It’s where Peyton and Eli Manning once starred, their nephew and prized recruit Arch Manning played quarterback this past season and where Beckham once tormented secondaries before going on to LSU and becoming the 12th overall pick of the 2014 draft by the New York Giants.
It’s been more than a decade since Beckham’s Newman days, but the coach and player remain close, talking regularly. The last time the two spoke was a few weeks ago — Stewart wanted to give Beckham space as he continued his free-agent process — but the old coach was “thrilled” to see him end up with the Ravens. He also said he feels it’s a destination Beckham would not have picked unless he knew that Jackson would be his quarterback.
“The biggest thing for me has always been fit,” Stewart told The Baltimore Sun. “For him to miss a year is a big deal; it was about getting himself [healthy] and not rushing [his decision].
“Baltimore’s a great organization, they have a great young quarterback and he has a really solid rapport with [new offensive coordinator] Todd Monken. He wanted to go to an organization that valued him [salary-wise], but he’s a winner and they’re a perennial contender. That matters.”
It has been 14 months since Beckham last played in a game, that being Super Bowl 56 in February 2022 with the Los Angeles Rams when he caught two passes for 52 yards and a touchdown before suffering his second career torn ACL in his left knee. He won a ring, but the price was steep. Beckham missed all of last season as he rehabilitated, then embarked on a monthslong free-agent tour that nearly included a visit with the New York Jets on Sunday night before the Ravens swooped in to snag the two-time All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowl selection from the clutches of the Big Apple and potentially star quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
The deal, which reportedly includes an additional $3 million in incentives to stretch the total to $18 million, makes Beckham the highest paid receiver of the NFL free-agent market this offseason, a move uncharacteristic for the bargain-hunting Ravens that gives the team its biggest star at the position since Steve Smith Sr. But it also comes with questions, specifically about the durability and impact of a player who is coming off a second major knee injury, will turn 31 on Nov. 5 and hasn’t had a 1,000-yard season since 2019.
Still, there are reasons to be optimistic, about not just the increased likelihood that Beckham’s decision to come to Baltimore will also help keep the 2019 NFL Most Valuable Player in town for at least another year, but of the kind of duo they can form because of Jackson’s dynamic abilities and Beckham’s high-level route running, blocking and knowledge.
“He’s the hardest worker I’ve ever been around,” said Stewart, who has also long been involved in the Manning Passing Academy, where the top high school and college quarterbacks, including Jackson, have come through for more than two decades. “He’s bigger and faster and stronger than he has been in years.”
But Beckham also comes with baggage. The controversies he has been engulfed in vary, but they created something of a reputation.
A season after being named 2014 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, Beckham was suspended in December 2015 for a game after an intentional helmet-to-helmet hit on Carolina Panthers cornerback Josh Norman following a series of personal foul penalties between the two. In January 2017, there was the infamous photo of Beckham and a handful of Giants teammates partying in Miami a week before a playoff game against the Green Bay Packers they went on to lose. In March 2018, a viral video showed Beckham in Paris with a model and what appeared to be a white substance, though, according to ESPN, a private investigator hired by a team interested in acquiring the star found nothing of concern.
In 2019, Beckham and current Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey got into a fight during a Week 4 matchup. Four months later, after LSU won the national championship, Beckham was seen handing out cash to players on the field following the game, reportedly earning him a two-year ban from the school’s facilities. Then in November 2021, when Beckham was a member of the Cleveland Browns, his father posted a video on social media of quarterback Baker Mayfield missing or not throwing to his son during games.
And in November, bodycam footage showed Beckham being asked to leave an American Airlines plane in Miami because people suspected he was ill. He refused and eventually was escorted off the flight to Los Angeles after getting into a verbal argument with one man.
Yet, many of Beckham’s colleagues over the years have spoken about him as being a good teammate, something that could have a significant impact on an otherwise young receivers room. It’s a sentiment Stewart agrees with going back to Beckham’s high school days, through college and into the NFL.
“He’s a phenomenal locker room presence,” Stewart said. “He makes your team better. He leads by example. His football IQ is off the charts.
“He wasn’t a spotlight seeker [growing up]. In high school, he didn’t like doing interviews. He was so young [when he became a star in the NFL]; he was in his early 20s and didn’t know how to navigate it. Every moment, the cameras were on him. Passion can get viewed one way, but he’s a guy who wants to win and he’s passionate about it. It matters so much to him.”
Now that Beckham is a 30-year-old father, Stewart sees a different side of him. In his eyes, he’s not the same person who the Giants stunningly shipped to Cleveland in 2019 just months after signing him to a five-year, $90 million deal.
“When he came into the league, everything went right, then he got hurt and battled adversity,” Stewart said. “It hardened him, having that much success and then going to Cleveland and being hurt [and that not working out] and then tasting [success] again with the Rams. He’s shown an ability to get off the mat. He’s more mature now, has life perspective.”
Not lost in that picture is teaming up with Jackson, Stewart says, but also reuniting with Monken, who was the Browns’ offensive coordinator in 2019 when Beckham caught 74 passes for 1,035 yards and four touchdowns.
Monken, who spent the past three years as the offensive coordinator at Georgia, where he helped the Bulldogs win two national championships, is close with Stewart. The veteran assistant has talked repeatedly about transforming the Ravens to a more up-tempo and modern offense since joining Baltimore earlier this year, something that will be made easier with Beckham as part of the fold.
“It was all positive,” Stewart said of Beckham’s relationship with Monken during their brief time in Cleveland together. “When [Monken] came in to meet with me [after going to Georgia], he said [Beckham] was hurt there. There was a lot of weight on him [but] he had to battle injuries. He was battling, but he was getting pulled in a thousand different directions. He just wanted to win.”
That’s a prospect for the Ravens that is made easier with Beckham — and, more importantly, with Jackson. Time will tell.
Beckham will have an introductory news conference Thursday alongside coach John Harbaugh and general manager Eric DeCosta at 1 p.m. Stewart believes the new marriage is one that will work out for both sides.
“He’s a professional now,” Stewart said. “He gets the big picture.”
