Odell Beckham Jr., NFL: New York Giants OTA
Odell Beckham Jr., NFL: New York Giants OTA
Odell Beckham Jr. spent the entire 2025 season without an NFL team. Ten months later, he is taking first-team reps at Giants training camp and, per ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, sits as the “leader in the clubhouse” for one of the last receiver spots on the 53-man roster.
The Giants signed the 33-year-old to a one-year veteran-minimum deal worth $1.3 million on June 1, the same throwaway number they handed JuJu Smith-Schuster and Braxton Berrios. That contract was built as a tryout. Beckham is treating it like a job.
A minimum deal built to be walked away from
odell Beckham, NFL: New York Giants Minicamp
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Beckham’s $1.3 million contract carries no guaranteed money and cost the Giants only a 90-man roster spot and the per-diem for the offseason program. Miami waived him in December 2024 after nine catches for 55 yards across nine games, and he sat unsigned through all of 2025.
General manager Joe Schoen structured the reunion so New York could release him at the August 25 cutdown with zero dead money. Two-plus weeks into camp, walking away looks harder than it did in June.
New York rebuilt its receiver room this offseason, adding Beckham, Smith-Schuster, Berrios, Darnell Mooney, and Calvin Austin III while spending a third-round pick on Malachi Fields. Malik Nabers is locked in atop the group, Fields has pushed hard for the No. 2 job opposite him, and Darius Slayton’s $15.25 million cap charge makes him almost impossible to cut.
Jun 3, 2026; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. (3) participates in drills with teammates during organized team activities at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Jun 3, 2026; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. (3) participates in drills with teammates during organized team activities at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
That leaves Beckham, Mooney, Austin, and Jalin Hyatt fighting over maybe two or three remaining spots. Beckham has answered by lining up with the starters in team drills, a rotation a camp-body veteran almost never cracks.
Beckham last produced in 2023, when he caught 35 passes for 565 yards and three touchdowns for the Ravens. His career line reads 575 receptions, 7,987 yards, and 59 touchdowns over 119 games, none of which promises a 34-year-old anything in August. What earns a roster spot is separation against live coverage, and the Giants’ coaches have seen enough of it to keep feeding him work with the ones.
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Season Team Rec Yards TD
2023 Ravens 35 565 3
2024 Dolphins 9 55 0
2025 Did not play n/a n/a n/a
Career 10 seasons 575 7,987 59
John Harbaugh, NFL: New York Giants OTA
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Saturday’s preseason opener against the Minnesota Vikings hands Beckham his first live game action since 2024, and with Nabers and the projected starters likely to sit or play sparingly, the snaps will belong to the bubble. A strong showing turns a sentimental reunion into a real roster problem for John Harbaugh. Cut him, and the Giants save nothing on the cap; keep him, and they spend a locker on a receiver who has not finished a healthy, productive season in three years. The math that made the signing painless in June is the same math that makes the call hard now.
The guy signed to be camp filler has made himself impossible to ignore.