Giants OTAs #9: First look at OBJ back with NYG, revamped WR room | Blue Rush

We just got our first look at the new three wide receivers that the Giants have signed. Juju Smith-Schuster, Braxton Berrios, and the headliner, Odell Beckham Jr. This is your Blue Rush post-practice report for OTA number nine. Paul Schwartz, Brendan London here. Paul, I look up. I'm looking for 13. I look for 13. I see him. It's Jalen Hyatt. Odell goes back to three, which he wore at LSU. You covered this guy since his first day in the league. What was that like seeing the return of OBJ? You know, he said it was surreal. I think it was a little surreal. You know what I mean? I mean, look, you know, he spent his first five years here. He was, you know, he was Odell Beckham when he got here and he quickly became OBJ. Yes. Right. You know, he was a rookie phenom. You know, it's funny. Odell doesn't forget anything. He said, you know, when I first got here and I had a hamstring, and I know he looks around and some of us says, I know some of you were wondering and doubting me. You know, he doesn't forget anything good or bad. He's got a big brain in that head of his. He really does. And that's not a negative. That's, I'm complimenting him. But it was surreal to see him. You know what he said was interesting? He said, I left a helmet here. He said, I left a helmet here, one of my old helmets, and it had dust on it. Okay. Perfect, right? Because it had dust on it. Now we get to see how much dust Odell Beckham has on that 33-year-old body. Someone also asked him, oh, you're 33. And he goes like, you're making it sound like that's old. You know, Odell's feisty. He's competitive. You know, he was classic Odell today. It's dust versus juice. How much dust does he have on him versus how much juice does he have left in his body and the media? We all ask John Harbaugh about that. So here's John Harbaugh on all three receivers. And of course, Odell. I'd say just principally doing everything you can to be the best team you can be and give yourself the best chance to be the best team you can be. Those are three guys that were out there that we were monitoring. We've been talking about all three of those players for a while. It probably was a catalyst when we lost Gunner. It didn't have to be a one-for-one. We had to make a few moves in the specialist department. Those are guys we could still bring back if it worked out where we wanted to. Obviously, as long as they don't get claimed by somebody else or until they do. But try to be aggressive and give ourselves as many opportunities as we possibly can to have the strongest roster we can. So we'll see what happens. I mean, they'll be competing for roles. They'll be competing for their opportunity just like everybody else. So we'll see how it goes. But they've looked good out here and they've been working hard. And obviously, they're veteran players who've had highly decorated players in the league. It's just a matter of what can they do now. And that's what we'll find out. He said what we're all thinking. He said to Odell. And he was very real and transparent with the conversations that those two had. You can't just be okay. You have to be Odell. And I think everyone needs to manage their expectation. Both players, coaches, and the fan base on what the expectations on Odell Beckham Jr. to be a successful comeback or return, Paul. What were your thoughts on what Harbaugh said about OBJ? This is not a nostalgia tour. There wasn't a lot of sentimentality. Harbaugh knows Odell from 2023. Odell said, I wasn't very good then. I was just coming back off a knee. It wasn't right. Now, to play devil's advocate, he wasn't great in 2023 with the Ravens. He was really poor in nine games for the Dolphins. And he didn't play at all last year. So what are we getting with Odell? John Harbaugh is a head coach who's selfish. The best head coaches are selfish. What can you do for me? What can you do for us being the Giants? So he's not bringing Odell for feel good, for nostalgia. He's bringing him in, can you help me and this offense? Can you help Jackson Dart win games? John Harbaugh's not sure. But he's willing to give him and Juju Smith-Schuster and Braxton Berrios. Odell is the headliner here. If they cut Braxton Berrios and they cut Smith-Schuster, it's going to be a transaction and we'll say what happened. They were good players. What happened with Odell? It's different. It's Odell. We'll see. Look, it's as I wrote in the post from when they signed them to when day one of the regular season starts is 104 days. Odell has 104 days to stay healthy, to stay in shape and to do something to make the team. You know, this is a couple of days into it. Yeah, I think all three of those guys did something today to help their case to make the team and it's the first day we get to see them. It's the second day that they were actually out there on the field. Braxton Berrios had two really nice catches. Juju Smith-Schuster had a nice catch where he won on some press man to the inside, had a great grab. Odell showed catch radius. The hands are still there. And then there was a 50-50 ball, a goal route on the fourth down thrown by Jameis Winston that had really good coverage by Tate Banks. Couldn't bring it in. I think, again, I credited Tate Banks with the pass breakup, but I'm evaluating three with two different sets of eyes. One as a guy that, okay, you can make the team. You'll be a rotation player. Maybe if lucky, you'll get two to three targets in the game, but then I'm evaluating him as maybe potential starter or even a guy that can audition for a lot of targets in the game. And when I mean a lot, four to six range, because we know who the ace is. We know who the number one guy is, and that's Malik Neighbors. He rocks the number one. Win healthy. We know who the number two is and who I feel is going to be the number one receiver, and I use air quotes by that, until Malik Neighbors is back, and that's Isaiah Likely. You can see that they line him up all over the field. So that catch Odell made where we were all like, ooh, ah, we've seen that before. That's the one where I'm like, okay, solid rotational piece, but not coming down with that football, and I know it's early right now. Those are going to be the ones that gets more targets, Paul. It's too early. He just literally was trying out on Monday. You know what I mean? And now he's here. So I don't want him going up and extending himself and doing something heroic to make a catch to impress Brandon London and Paul Schwartz. You know what I mean? On our podcast. But those catches build confidence, though. But he doesn't need to build confidence today. You know, they have a practice tomorrow. They have a three-day mandatory mini camp next week, and then they're done for like six weeks. So get him through that. Let him take his paces and let him show up for training camp at the end of July, raring to go. Look, this is a marathon for him. He's got to make the team. Look, I know he can catch the ball. Odell was interesting. He said, you know, here's one of the things, and I know, you know, he talked about this with John Harbaugh when they were talking. Look, the money is the money. One year, vet minimum, $1.3 million. That's what he was going to get. There's no guarantees. That's literally the story of Odell Beckham right now. Nothing is guaranteed. But they had a discussion, you know, and John Harbaugh said to him, look, I don't want to be a guy who has to cut you. You know what I mean? You know, you're coming in. You have no guarantees. You don't want to cut Odell Beckham Jr. And Odell said, look, I was sitting home. I couldn't stomach going out that way in my career. I needed to go out on the field. He said, if you cut me, you cut me. But I'm going to go out on my sword. We'll see. You know, he's got a young son. He wants his young son to see him play. His young son was, you know, really not around when he was Odell Beckham Jr., when he was a great player. This is day one, day two of it. He's got a long road to go. I wouldn't put it past Odell because he is a great competitor and he's a tough guy. And he has some of the best hand-eye coordination I've ever seen as an athlete. I mean, like I wrote in the New York Post, if he wanted to make a lot of money in bar bets, he could go in bars, right? You know, you've seen him with ping pong balls, with this, with that, spin a football, kick a 30-yard field goal. I mean, he's a freak in that way. But he's had a lot of wear and tear in his legs. His hands are great. He's got to get through that and get through that. He doesn't like hearing 33 years old. In receiver years, 33 is up there. Well, let's hear from the man himself. He spoke to us at length post-practice during his media availability. So here goes three Odell Beckham Jr. Feels great. You know, I had a lot of time off. Taking a step away from the game was what was best for me. At a time in my life where, you know, you love something so much that it kind of became detrimental, became bad to me. And just being able to take that time off and be with my son and be with family and just reprioritize what was important to me. And knowing that, you know, I still love this game so much. I felt great just being back out there, being back in the building, just on this field, looking at this stadium. It's a pretty surreal feeling. I know I got a lot of work to do. I know Harbs and I have already talked about it. Like, I came here to earn anything, you know, everything in my life. Nothing was given to me. So I came here to earn it. Just work hard every day and be the best I can for the team. I go back to what you said, well, what he said about wanting to go out on his own sword. And then I pair that up with John Harbaugh telling him, you can't just be OK. That's why I talk about that pass breakup on the sideline. And it's not to be like, oh, he looks 33 or he looks old. Those are the ones that's going, coming down with those balls are going to be the ones that John Harbaugh is going to be like, OK, Matt Nagy, Brian Callahan, Greg Roman. This kid is more than OK. That's what I meant by that for that catch. But we still have time. Don't forget. In the Giants' real world, Malik Nabors might be running that route and making that catch. Darius Slayton is going to be stretching the field. You know, those guys aren't here, which is part of the reason why they needed to bring in three veteran receivers. Now, Braxton Barrow is a little different. He's kind of a like for like with Gunnar Olszewski, who, you know, was out for the season with the Achilles. So that, you know, I can see him making the team just because of that, because he's a return guy and a little, you know, shifty slot guy. I think, you know, Odell is not, you know, he was asked a bunch of times about Malik Nabors. You know, they're two LSU receivers. Can you be a mentor? Can you be good for him? They didn't bring him in to be an assistant coach. Now, will Malik watch some of the stuff that Odell does and kind of take notice of it and quietly look at him as a guy he can learn from? I hope so. I mean, you would hope he would. Absolutely. But, you know, Odell said, look, I know what to do and what not to do. And that was really interesting. That was self-awareness that, look, Odell said he never wanted to leave New York. He never wanted to leave the Giants. We know that after five years. He said some things. He did some things. They got tired of him. And they traded him to the Browns, right? Dave Gettleman, the GM, traded him to the Browns. He said he never wanted to leave. But he kind of, he wasn't playing with matches and then a little fire. But, you know, you remember he did some things to hurt his longevity with the Giants. For sure. He was not fully, you know, he had some culpability there. But he knows what to do and what not to do. So Malik Nabors has done some things that are kind of like, OK, maybe he shouldn't have done that, right? So if Odell can talk to Malik on that level, on a superstar to hopefully a budding superstar level and say, look, the media is going to blow this out of proportion and everyone's cool with this. But you got to think about this. You got to think about that. That is very meaningful. And that could be something. Look, he's got to be a great teammate. Yes. You know, a Diva receiver doesn't always have to be a great teammate. He has to be a great teammate. Then he has to. That's a bonus to being a guy that on Sunday, there's only 45 players in uniform, 46 players in uniform. He doesn't play special teams. Why do you get a uniform? That's what he has to show. So they didn't bring him in to be an assistant coach. They brought him in to be a big homie. Because Malik Nabors, you think about his two years he's been in the league. Who in that Giants receiver room has he been able to look up to or respect? And that's no disrespect. A little bit of Sterling Shepard. OK, a little bit of Shepard. But I'm the guy. I'm the guy. First year in, I'm the man. I got them to un-retire. Number one, I'm the one with the chain. Now you bring in a guy that I've done everything you've done. Plus some. And guess what? I've also torn my knee up. The way you've torn your knee up. So I know what the fall is like, young man. LSU, go Tigers. You know what I'm saying? So now you got a guy that as long as Odell is making those catches and he's around and he's having some sort of production, Malik Nabors is going to sit there and all, maybe not all, but they're going to compete together. But he's going to listen. Because here's the guy that's done it. And if you're Malik Nabors, this is having Odell Beckham there is going to, that's your wake up call right there. If you need a wake up call, bro, right there. Because it's like, you don't want to disrespect him and be like, I don't want my career to go left like his. And also, as you said about the ACL, Odell's had two of them. Two of them. So he can say every, you know, he's a speed receiver. Yes. He's agility, speed. So he can say to him, look, I felt that same way. Yeah. That second day in training camp, you got to be careful. You got to do this. Don't worry about it. It's going to come. So, you know, that is very valuable. Other than the lessons about what to do and not to do off the field. It's also, I've been there. I know. Yeah. You feel a little sluggish today. I remember that. You got to push through it or you know what? You don't have to push through it. You know, don't, don't, don't make yourself crazy here. They understand through this. So look, it's going to be fascinating. You know, I, I think, I think fans are really pumped up about it. You know, I posted just some, you know, we only get a small segment of time that we can, we can video out there. As you know, I posted just some basic videos of Elle doing, you know, Odell doing some things and it got like a hundred, you know, likes or comments or whatever, just because. Just like that. It's like just, just him literally running, turning, catching the ball on air. You know what I mean? With nothing. It's nothing. You know, one guy, one guy comments and says, that's our WR1. Okay. I don't know about that. Why relax? One guy said, okay, he's already better than Jalen Hyatt. You got to worry about that. Don't worry about it. One guy already comments though. Darius Slayton would have dropped that, you know? So this is, this is, you know, we'll see. Look, if he stays healthy, then I think he's got a great shot to make the team. But that is a big IF. That is a big two letter word. If, and we'll see, we'll see. Everybody needs to manage their expectations here. And again, like you told me, it's only second day. He's been back in New Jersey. He doesn't have to be Superman with the cape. He doesn't have to be anything. Just get through it and talk to us. And you know, like I said, then it's, it's three days next week. You know, I wouldn't expect them to, you know, you know, go, go crazy and work them in, work them in. Then you get that long break. Look, he's in great shape. You know, it looks like he's in great shape. Now he said he's fast. He's as fast or faster than he was. Than he was. I don't know about that. He said the analytics, they say they got a lot of analytics around the building. Look, his legs have not been the same in many years. He didn't play last year. Maybe that works to his benefit. We'll see. You know, no one's rooting against them. I mean, some people are, but some people root against everything. I think it's a great story if it can happen and we'll see. Everybody's fast on day one and two. It's about the day five, 12, 16 and training camp. And what about with pads? And with pads that way. And they're hitting you and they're roughing you up. You know, now it's, you know, as you know, as a wide receiver, you got to dominate now, right? Like John Harbaugh said last week, the offense has got to make these plays now. You know, nobody's hitting them, you know. So these plays are these plays. We'll get in the training camp. We'll be in, you know, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. And we'll see Odell running around. After four or five days, they'll put pads on. Things will slow down. And that's the grind he's got to get through. I tell you what, that first preseason game, whether it's Jackson Dart to OBJ or even Jameis Winston to OBJ, everyone in New York, West Virginia, wherever you are, they're going to stand up and applaud because it's great. It was really good to see Odell back. All right. That was your Blue Rush post-practice report for Paul Schwartz. I'm Brandon London.