Baltimore Ravens Sign Odell Beckham Jr.
Baltimore Sun
Baltimore, Maryland (PSF) - The Odell Beckham Jr. sweepstakes are officially over, if you even want to call it that.
After two years of being a free agent out on the open market, Beckham has finally found a new home in Baltimore with the Ravens.
Beckham was scheduled to fly into New Jersey on Sunday Night and visit with the New York Jets on Monday, before Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta swooped in and signed Beckham to a one-year deal worth $18 million with $15 million guaranteed according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
For Baltimore, they now have their wide receiver one. For Beckham, he now gets to be the number one option for a quarterback in the passing game like he was for the Giants from 2014-2018.
While the move is great for both sides and makes a lot of sense for both parties, it still comes with some formidable risk.
At first glance and at face value the signing looks like an overpay even with Beckham now being Baltimore’s top receiver. If I was Eric DeCosta, I would have offered Beckham anywhere between $7 million to $8 million. As we have now found out, DeCosta was willing to go above those numbers and give Beckham a contract in the double digits.
Taking Beckham’s age into account, he is already 30 years old, which is the number where wide receiver production starts to deteriorate as he is only getting older.
Not to mention, Beckham is now coming off of a torn ACL, which he suffered in the Super Bowl with the Rams two years ago and has had more injury and durability issues in the past with his previous teams.
I would say that this move for both Baltimore and Beckham is a low-risk high reward signing, however, because of how much larger the contract turned out to be, that’s where I draw the line.
This move is great for Beckham. Not only is he back to being the number one option in the passing game again and got more than what he was worth on the open market, but if he plays great next season than he absolutely will cash in with another pay day next offseason. If not with Baltimore, than with another club as their will be plenty of suitors for his services as the deal is only for one year.
As for Baltimore, they finally have a number one wide receiver and proven superstar playmaker even with his age and durability history. Now, if Beckham were to have a first great season, they better have enough money to sign him next offseason but that is a discussion for another day.
The biggest winner from this deal though is not Baltimore or Beckham for that matter, but actually Lamar Jackson.
With rumors galore circulating around the internet and within NFL circles of where Jackson is going to play next season, Baltimore has now given him the best wide receiver he has ever had in his career with Baltimore thus far in a move to keep him to stay.
Not only this, but Jackson is still going to receive a big paycheck from Baltimore whenever they agree to terms on an extension, which will have a lot of guaranteed money attached to it.
In fact, it was reported that moments after Beckham signed his contract with the Ravens, Jackson and Beckham hopped on a facetime call to get to know each other better and get the relationship started.
Jackson is obviously a big fan of the move, giving DeCosta and Head Coach John Harbaugh even more confidence that Lamar will be back in purple and black next season.
Jackson and Beckham will look to strengthen their relationship on the field this upcoming season as Jackson now has the best wide receiver of his career and Beckham gets to be in the spotlight again, right where he belongs.
