By May 3, the Giants had to decide if they would pick up the fifth-year option on Odell Beckham Jr. As decisions go, this one was akin to considering whether or not to reach for that second slice of pizza. You always go for it.
The Giants will exercise the option, meaning Beckham is assured of making about $8 million in 2018 — the salary average of the third-through-25th highest-paid receivers in the NFL. If the Giants did not exercise the option, Beckham’s rookie contract would have expired after the 2017 season and he would have become an unrestricted free agent. Official word from the Giants will come any day.
Beckham did not officially announce the move on social media, but took to Twitter on Monday to post a series of dramatic tweets, even by his often-cryptic standards.
“Just wanna say today I woke up feeling extremely blessed,’’ he wrote. “The start of a new chapter in my life began this pass week.’’
Beckham went on to state: “I will be workin harder than I ever have, to be the best that I have been. I’m more motivated now then I have ever been.’’
Beckham is the class of the exceptional 2014 wide-receiver draft class, with three seasons of shattered records that vaulted him to elite status. Given the nature of rookie deals, Beckham is one of the great bargains in the NFL, heading into the final year (at $1.83 million) of a four-year, $10.4 million contract. He is on track to become the second Giants player to hit the $100 million contract stratosphere, where only Eli Manning resides. The Giants can wait on this mega-deal, as by exercising the fifth-year option, Beckham is bound to them through the 2018 season. They can wait and see if their 24-year old superstar shows the maturity they want from him, as general manager Jerry Reese, following the 2016 season, stated it is time for Beckham to “grow up.’’
“You guys called it critical,’’ Reese said. “I don’t think it was critical. I think some of you guys framed it as critical, but I didn’t see it that way.
“Again, I think he is a guy that hears what we are saying and like [owner] John [Mara] said, ‘We are not worried about Odell,’ ’’ Reese said. “He is a young kid, he is growing up every day and we think that he is going to continue being a tremendous football player and a tremendous representative of our organization here.’’