Odell Beckham Jr. wants to be Comeback Player of the Year next season, but before he gets there, he has a bit of offseason business he would like to take care of first.
The Giants’ mercurial wide receiver was on the red carpet before the NFL Honors show Saturday night in Minneapolis and was asked his thoughts on his current contract situation.
“Hopefully we get it done, just to get it over with,” Beckham said. “I really want to do it so I can move past it. It’s too much to be sitting around, thinking where I’m going to be.”
Beckham made it clear before the start of this past season his motivation is to be the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL. A strong performance on the field would have gone a long way toward that, but instead, his plans were derailed by a season-ending ankle fracture in October.
Even before the injury, however, Beckham made more noise with his antics — including a now-infamous touchdown celebration in which in mimed urinating like a dog — than with his play.
It has been one of the major questions put to new Giants coach Pat Shurmur: How will he deal with his talented but difficult-to-control franchise wide receiver?
Shurmur left his first meeting with Beckham thinking the three-time Pro Bowler sounded “inspired” to have a bounce-back season, but emphasized the need for players to buy into the “Giants Way.”
“We have to get the players in the building, and certainly as we go through the offseason here, we just continually talk about what’s right and how we’re going to do business,” Shurmur said. “We really just have to set the standards and the guidelines. It’s more than just saying, ‘Follow the rules.’ It needs to be relationship-driven.”
With the new coach seemingly in his corner and favorite quarterback Eli Manning returning, Beckham certainly looks set up for success and said as much when asked if he thinks he will fit well in the former Vikings offensive coordinator’s schemes.
“That seems pretty obvious,” Beckham said. “Watching what [the Vikings] do and just putting myself in that situation, I know that I’d be doing some pretty good things for our team.”
It was perhaps with that in mind that Beckham issued a challenge to Texans defensive end J.J. Watt when the two ran into each other on the red carpet.
Watt, who missed all but five games because of an injury this season, and Beckham bumped fists, and Beckham proposed: “Comeback Player of the Year?”
“It’s going to be the battle of a lifetime, brother,” Watt responded.
Watt later was named the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year during the ceremony, giving Beckham another honor to shoot for, if he feels so inclined.