Odell Beckham Jr. has a spot on the New York Giants’ 2026 roster, marking the first step in a comeback many did not see as realistic.
Making the roster, though, is only part of the deal. Now the question is, how much can the 33-year-old Beckham, who has suffered a number of leg injuries throughout a career than began when the Giants selected him 12th overall in the 2014 NFL Draft, help the Giants on the field?
Beckham didn’t come back to be a nostalgia act. He didn’t come back to wave at fans from
the sidelines on game days, get some polite cheers, and then watch other receivers catch passes from Jaxson Dart.
He came back to show that he could still be a productive player. He came back, as he has said several times, to leave the game the way he wanted to leave it rather than having it taken from him before he was ready to go.
When Beckham badgered Giants coach John Harbaugh into giving him a tryout, then a second tryout, and finally signing him, Harbaugh laid it out for him.
“You can’t be just okay. You’re Odell Beckham,” Harbaugh said at the time. “You’ve got to come out here and you have to be performing at a high level in workout, you’ve got to be performing at a high level in practice. You got to be a guy capable that we can see would have a chance to make a difference in NFL games. You have to be that kind of player.”
Beckham thinks he still can be.
“I feel confident in my ability, and whatever it is that I need to provide, I’m looking to do that and more,” Beckham said on Monday. “I’ve never shied away from competition or anything like that. So, I feel that I can produce. I know that’s what I want to do and now it’s about putting the work in to be able to do that.
“As far as what I feel like I can do on the field, I feel confident in that, and I’ve never allowed anything anyone says to shake that confidence.”
Harbaugh said Monday that Beckham is not on the roster to be a spectator.
“He’ll be in that receiver group,” Harbaugh said. “I mean, he’ll be rotating in in different personnel groups, and he’ll be playing.”
Harbaugh said he “sensed accomplishment” from Beckham when the coach told Beckham after Sunday’s practice that he would be part of the initial 53-man roster.
“I feel like he felt like he accomplished something, but not finished, and he said that,” Harbaugh said. “He wants to get – now it’s time to make it count, that’s where he’s at.
“But I know he knows he accomplished a lot. It’s kind of unheard of, in some ways, to be away for so long to come back. I don’t know how many times this has actually been done. It would be interesting to see, but the odds were probably against him, I would say. He overcame the odds and did it. Now what do you do with it? And that’s what he’s focused on.”
Beckham admitted to shedding tears when he knew he had made the roster.
“I have an opportunity to rewrite some of the last bit of the chapter,” he said. “Don’t know, last year, whatever it is, I just know I’m going to give my all. But definitely had that moment where it was like you could let out some of the pain that I feel like I went through. It was just very healing, very emotional, something I was very happy about.”
Beckham said “it’s everything” to make the roster for the team that drafted him. Making the roster, though, isn’t enough.
“Nobody’s playing just to play – you all want to win,” Beckham said. “So, that was kind of the message I had to the group. It’s like, it’s one thing to get here. It’s an honor and a privilege, but how do you take that next step each and every day and find ways to level up?”
‘He earned his spot’
I have, at times, been accused of being a Beckham hater. I was even accused of that in the Monday morning roster review podcast I did with Tony DelGenio.
I am not a Beckham hater. I did hate some of the self-serving, “look at me” things Beckham did as a young player with the Giants. Why? Because those things forced us to talk about stuff that had nothing to do with football, and how great Beckham was at playing it. As much as Beckham has often said he never wanted to leave New York, his own words, actions, and choices are what led to him being traded before the 2019 season.
I have admitted to thinking that the Giants bringing Beckham back was not a good idea. I doubted both his ability to still play at a high enough level, and his willingness to accept without complaint a role where things did not revolve around him.
The version of Beckham we have seen this summer has not sought adulation or attention, though fans shower him with plenty of both. He has only come to work every day, and done his best to show that he belongs on the football team.
“He was one of the best guys, he earned it, he earned his spot,” Harbaugh said. “I mean, from beginning to end, he earned it.
“There’s nobody in that locker room, I believe, or anywhere in the building, that questions Odell’s earning this. It’s clear cut, so that’s it.”
Beckham, father to a young boy and a more spiritual person than he was as a younger man, has talked about his journey.
“He has talked quite a bit about that. And I think it’s – what he says, I listen to what he says because it’s interesting to me. I’ve been in these conversations with him now for, over the years, a lot, but probably in the last six months a lot lot,” Harbaugh said. “And he’s been – this is what he’s been talking about, kind of the growth. I just think he’s going through some things in his life that have really made him take stock of certain things, and what’s important in his life, and it’s neat to see. We all go through that and hopefully continue to.
“But he’s in a great place, he’s in a great place, he’s ready to compete. He’s ready to help the Giants be the best team they can be. He wants to make plays, he wants to make blocks, he wants to do whatever he can do to help the team.”
Beckham has earned this second chance with the Giants. Let’s hope he does something good with it, and that he can live in peace with however it turns out.
