It wasn’t too long ago when Odell Beckham Jr. appeared destined to go down as one of the greatest wide receivers in the history of the NFL. But now, he appears to be a shell of his former self with little to no impact on an NFL roster.
Beckham, who is currently playing for the Miami Dolphins, has dealt with his fair share of injuries that have completely altered his trajectory in the NFL. Perhaps most notably, Beckham suffered a torn ACL in Super Bowl LVI, and has never gotten his patented explosiveness back.
The three-time Pro Bowler is three years removed from that ACL injury. And to this point in the season, he has played no impact on the Dolphins roster. Beckham has played in three games this season, but has recorded zero catches on the three targets he has actually received.
At age 31, Beckham may very well find himself out of the NFL soon if we don’t see an uptick in production soon. But perhaps surprisingly, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel hasn’t lost faith in Beckham, recently saying that he may be featured more moving forward as he gets more comfortable in his role in Miami.
“I thought he looked as comfortable as he’s looked,” McDaniel told reporters earlier this week, via Pro Football Talk. “I think Tua [Tagovailoa] sees that on tape and we kind of adjust to what players show us and I thought he was running the best routes, so my expectation would be more involvement based upon him being consensual in that and owning that much more of the offense so we can get him on the field more.
“So I think it was a step in the right direction, albeit, the box score doesn’t really assess that. From our standpoint from the way we look at offense and the way we look at doing our jobs, I thought he did a good job with the opportunities he had, and we’ll continue to push that envelope because we’re trying to max out what type of football team we are and we know he can help us.”
Maybe we will see more signs of life moving forward. But fans aren’t exactly all that optimistic about his chances.
“He’s washed, unfortunately,” one fan wrote on X.
“Perfect example of teams thinking because you were once great you still are years later,” another wrote.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.