Odell Beckham Jr. didn’t need long to decide Minnesota was the place.
After a stretch at home with his son and a look at his options, Beckham said a phone call from Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell pushed the move over the line. The veteran wideout, who worked with O’Connell before during the Los Angeles Rams’ Super Bowl run, said the conversation made the fit feel obvious.
“Life happens fast, but life in the NFL definitely happens faster,” Beckham said Wednesday. “It just seemed right.”
That sense of being wanted mattered to Beckham. O’Connell’s confidence in him, Beckham said, stood out throughout the process.
“Go where you’re wanted,” Beckham said. “It seemed as if he wanted me to be here, and that was expressed to me. That feels good when you’re playing a sport like this where you’re laying your livelihood on the line.”
The move also drops Beckham into a locker room full of familiar faces, and none is bigger than Justin Jefferson. The two have Louisiana ties that go back to LSU, and Beckham said he noticed Jefferson long before the star receiver became one of the NFL’s most dangerous playmakers.
“He was like this big at LSU,” Beckham said while motioning with his hand. “I’ve got a very good eye for someone who’s watching. Not just watching, but watching like, ‘I’m going to be you or better.'”
Beckham and Jefferson’s connection reaches back to Beckham’s freshman season at LSU, when Jefferson’s older brother was on the team. Now they’re teammates with a Vikings team that sits at 4-0 but ranks last in the NFL in passing yards. Jefferson also missed the last game with a sprained ankle.
Beckham, the 2014 Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year, made the Pro Bowl in each of his first three NFL seasons with the New York Giants. In 122 career regular-season games, he has 7,987 receiving yards and 59 touchdowns.
His path to Minnesota has come after a busy run through the league. Beckham returned to the Giants at age 33 after being out of football in 2025, but that stint lasted three games and produced one target and no catches. He also served a six-game suspension last year for failing a performance-enhancing drug test and did not sign with a team after that.
Before this latest stop, Beckham was traded to the Cleveland Browns in 2019, then joined the Los Angeles Rams midway through their 2021 Super Bowl championship season. He caught 21 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns in four playoff games that year. Beckham later played for the Baltimore Ravens in 2023 and the Miami Dolphins in 2024.
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