New layers have been added to the 2022 NFL season “Will they or won’t they?” saga between three-time Pro Bowl receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and the Dallas Cowboys. The 30-year-old broad who just suffered his second ACL injury won’t be ready to play until the playoffs start, according to a report from the Dallas Morning News. ESPN too reported Dallas fears Beckham will be ready to play before “mid-January,” which is the equivalent of the Cowboys going to the NFC Championship Game, something they haven’t done since the 1995 season. the second part of ESPN’s report notes that there is a ‘possibility’ that signing him now would not help the team until next season in 2023.
However, CBS Sports NFL Insider Josina Anderson reports that Beckham Jr. is still visiting with the Cowboys and feels “able to contribute to the playoffs this season” after joining a team and getting to know their playbook and new teammates.
Team owner and general manager Jerry Jones said ‘we’re going to keep that at bay’ when asked if Beckham Jr. was ready to play during his radio appearance on 105.3 FM The Fan in Dallas. At this time, Jones has declined to give a timeline on when a decision might be made to sign the top smuggler.
“We are in no way in a position to say ‘shut down’ or where we are at,” Jones said Tuesday. “We’re just discussing the many options available to us.”
On Tuesday morning, it looked like Beckham Jr. had yet to complete a full workout with the team, as Jones addressed the level of comfort he would have in signing the player who tore his ACL during the Super Bowl last season with the Los Rams of Angeles.
“Well, I’m not confident at all,” Jones said of signing Beckham Jr. without making him work. “That’s the problem. We’re all aware of the health issue… We have a good pearl about it.”
Many of the Cowboys’ top players and locker room executives have publicly expressed their desire to add Beckham Jr. to their squad in recent weeks. Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons and cornerback Trevon Diggs turned their words into action as they took the wide receiver to Monday night’s Dallas Mavericks-Phoenix Suns game.
“We know the type of player Odell is,” Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott said. via DallasCowboys.com. “We know how explosive he can be and what he can be for this offense. It would be great to bring him here to Dallas, another weapon in our repertoire. … We want him. We want OBJ.”
“Damn, we could use him, I think he’s a great player,” Parsons said, via DallasCowboys.com. “He’s a guy you want in the team. Next to all this critical stuff that people make up and shit about him, I think he’s a great guy. … I think he can add a real value to the team and helping us do what we want to do.”
About two weeks after those initial comments, quarterback Dak Prescott opened up about Beckham Jr.’s situation. The Cowboys quarterback said he had “definitely sent messages” to the talented veteran, by The Athleticand wants to see him in Dallas as the team looks to make a Super Bowl run.
“He knows how badly I want him here,” Prescott said via DallasCowboys.com. “There’s been a little back and forth. Just making sure he understands we want him here. … We’re bringing him in [for a visit]and I hope things go well in the recruitment process.”
Even the team’s official Twitter account wanted to push for the wide receiver on Nov. 22.
The Cowboys Twitter account wrote, “It’s your shot, OBJ,” along with the eyes emoji.
Their desire to add to the Cowboys passing game stems from a desire to make it more multi-dimensional. In the first 13 weeks of the season, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb’s 111 targets represent 30.5% of the entire team’s targets. That makes Lamb the third-most reliable wide receiver in the entire NFL, narrowly behind the NFL’s two highest-paid wides: Raiders’ Davante Adams (32.8% team target percentage), wide receiver the highest-paid by total contract value, and the Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill (30.9% team target percentage), the NFL’s highest-paid wide receiver on an annual basis.
The presence of Beckham Jr. could add another reliable outside target for Prescott, something the team missed alongside Lamb after trading Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns in the offseason. The two players Jones decided to pay in place of Cooper this past offseason, tight end Dalton Schultz and wide receiver Michael Gallup, have slowly entered 2022. Schultz ($10.9 million on the franchise label) dealt with a lingering knee injury and started to come back, making up for all three of its touchdowns in the last four games. Gallup (five-year extension, $57.5 million) returning from an ACL injury he suffered in 2021 grabbed two touchdowns, his second and third of the season, Sunday night against the Colts. ‘Indianapolis. They represented his first scores since Week 4 against the Washington Commanders, his first game played this season.
Beckham Jr. signed with the Rams in Week 10 last season after a release from the Browns, and he had seven receiving touchdowns from that time until the Rams’ Super Bowl victory, tied for fifth. rank in the NFL from Week 10 until the conclusion of the playoffs.
If Dallas and Beckham Jr. agree to a deal this season, it would add intrigue to a tight NFC East Division race. Behind the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles at 11-1 are the Cowboys at 9-3, followed by the New York Giants at 7-4-1 and the Washington Commanders at 7-5-1. New York drafted Beckham 12th overall in the 2014 NFL Draft, and he was immediately successful, winning the 2014 Offensive Rookie of the Year award. The wide receiver’s three career Pro Bowl appearances have come at the during his first three seasons with the G-Men. Beckham Jr. was traded by former general manager Dave Gettleman ahead of the 2019 season along with defensive lineman Olivier Vernon to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for offensive lineman Kevin Zeitler, safety Jabrill Peppers and two draft picks. draft (2019 first-round pick and 2019 third-round pick). -round pick). The move came less than a year after the Giants signed Beckham Jr. to a five-year, $90 million contract extension.
If Odell Beckham Jr. ends up with silver and blue this season, revenge and the pursuit of a second Super Bowl ring could likely be two of the main reasons why.
