Odell Beckham Jr. arrived in Giants camp on a contract that looked disposable. Two-plus weeks later, he’s making it awfully inconvenient to treat him that way.
The 33-year-old has moved into first-team reps and, per ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, is now the “leader in the clubhouse” for one of the final receiver spots on New York’s 53-man roster. That’s a sharp turn for a player who spent the entire 2025 season without an NFL team before signing with the Giants on June 1.
That deal was worth just $1.3 million on the veteran minimum, the same basic number the Giants gave JuJu Smith-Schuster and Braxton Berrios. It came with no guaranteed money and was set up so New York could move on at the August 25 cutdown with no dead money. In other words, it was a tryout dressed up as a reunion.
Beckham has handled it like a man trying to win a job, not jog through camp on reputation.
The Giants have crowded the receiver room with options this offseason. Along with Beckham, they added Smith-Schuster, Berrios, Darnell Mooney, and Calvin Austin III, then used a third-round pick on Malachi Fields.
Malik Nabers is already locked in at the top of the depth chart, Fields has pushed for the No. 2 role opposite him, and Darius Slayton’s $15.25 million cap charge makes him nearly untouchable. That leaves Beckham, Mooney, Austin, and Jalin Hyatt battling for what may be only two or three remaining spots.
Beckham has answered by working with the starters in team drills, a place a camp-body veteran usually never reaches. That’s the part that matters most at 33: not the name on the back of the jersey, but whether the separation is still there against live coverage. The Giants’ coaches have seen enough to keep him in the mix.
His last real production came in 2023 with the Ravens, when he caught 35 passes for 565 yards and three touchdowns. Across 119 games, his career totals sit at 575 receptions, 7,987 yards, and 59 touchdowns. Those numbers don’t guarantee anything in late August, especially for a player who sat unsigned through all of 2025 after Miami waived him in December 2024 following nine catches for 55 yards in nine games.
Saturday’s preseason opener against the Minnesota Vikings will give Beckham his first live game action since 2024. With Nabers and the projected starters likely to sit or play sparingly, the snaps should fall to the bubble receivers, which gives Beckham a chance to keep turning this into a real decision for the Giants.
Cut him, and New York saves nothing. Keep him, and the Giants use a roster spot on a receiver who hasn’t finished a healthy, productive season in three years.
The contract was built to be easy to walk away from. Beckham has made that a lot harder.
In Other News...
Giants Camp Is Already Turning Up Pressure On Several Roster Names
Training camp is only getting started, but a handful of Giants already find themselves in an uncomfortable spotlight. The early returns have not been especially kind to Jaxson Dart as he works to adjust to the offense, Evan Neal has seen his reps reduced, Paulson Adebo has slipped out of the starting cornerback spot, and Ben Sauls is fighting through a crowded kicking competition. None of that has triggered any roster moves yet, but it has given the first stretch of camp a sharper edge for a team still trying to sort out where some of its key names fit.
For the Giants, the next few preseason practices and games will matter a lot for players trying to steady themselves before the roster picture tightens. Camp can always shift quickly, especially at spots where performance is being judged rep by rep, but these early struggles have already put pressure on several familiar names. The encouraging part for the staff is that there is still time to respond. The less encouraging part is that time is starting to feel limited. [Read more 🡒]
Malachi Fields Is Creating A Giants Receiver Problem They Can't Ignore
Malachi Fields has turned training camp into a real audition, and the rookie wide receiver from Notre Dame is making the most of every rep he gets. With injuries thinning the room around him, Fields has been able to show why coaches and analysts keep taking notice, flashing the kind of route running and physical play that can make a young receiver hard to ignore when the pads come on.
The most encouraging part for the Giants is how well Fields has translated that work into the red zone, where he has looked comfortable as a target and a finisher. For a roster still sorting out its receiver pecking order, his rise creates a problem the team has to pay attention to, because camp reps can start to look a lot more like regular-season opportunities when a rookie keeps stacking good days. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Could Complicate Cam Skattebos Role Sooner Than Expected
Cam Skattebo was always going to matter to the Giants' backfield plan, but the picture around him may be changing sooner than many expected. According to Dan Duggan of The Athletic, the team is exploring ways to add another running back to the roster, a move that would give the offense more options behind its current group and keep the workload from settling too quickly in one direction.
The broader idea is pretty clear: New York wants a more dynamic runner alongside Skattebo, someone who can bring a different element to the rotation and help round out the depth chart. It is still unclear when, or even if, the Giants will actually make that move, but the reported interest suggests the backfield competition could get a lot more interesting before long. [Read more 🡒]