On Tuesday, the Giants released receiver Odell Beckham Jr. On Wednesday, Giants coach Jack Harbaugh addressed the decision to pull the plug on OBJ 2.0.
“I had, you know, a great conversation with Odell, and, you know, it’s tough,” Harbaugh told reporters. “But we just weren’t getting enough, you know? It just wasn’t working for us. And like I told him, I wanted to be able to get more. I wanted him to be able to do more. I wanted to get him on the field more. We just, whatever reason, we weren’t able to do it. Put it on us. We weren’t able to get it done. But at this point in time, that’s kind of where we were. And we needed to move on.”
Harbaugh was reminded of last week’s comments regarding the possibility of Beckham getting more chances in the offense.
“Well, I think I said I hoped he would get more chances,” Harbaugh said, “That’s what I said. So nothing changed. I did hope he would get more chances. And he didn’t. You know, and that’s where we stood. So I felt like, that being the case, we’re not gonna be able to get it done. Roster spot-wise, we need more out of that spot, and that’s what we’re gonna do. Nothing about Odell. Nothing that he could do, in that sense. It’s just we weren’t able to get it done, make it fit, make it work, whatever you want to call it. And I was hoping we could, and we didn’t.”
(And, yes, Harbaugh did say he hoped it would happen on Sunday.)
The problem is that Beckham was too deep on the depth chart to not play special teams. They needed someone who, when only getting limited snaps on offense, could do more in the third phase — like Braxton Berrios and Charlie Jones will.
The injuries made it necessary to tweak the roster to ensure that the guys at the back end were able to contribute, in some fashion. Through three games, OBJ had become forgotten.
And it’s unlikely he’ll return. His number, 13, already has been re-issued to quarterback Jake Haener, whose prior number (18) was claimed by new backup quarterback J.J. McCarthy.