A former three-time Pro Bowl receiver just became available, but here’s why the Pittsburgh Steelers would be wise to avoid making a claim for Odell Beckham.
Over the past few days, social media has been blowing up with the news that Odell Beckham was no longer going to be playing for Cleveland. On Friday morning, the Browns officially released their star receiver (if you can call him that).
To begin his NFL career, Beckham was on a remarkable pace. The extremely athletic wide receiver and former first-round pick of the New York Giants kicked things off with three straight seasons of over 1,300 yards and at least 10 touchdowns despite playing in 16 games just once, via Pro Football Reference.
Since then, Beckham has been just a shade of his former self. Though he did top 1,000 yards in both 2018 with the Giants and 2019 as a member of the Browns, injuries have plagued much of his career — most notably, an ACL tear he suffered just 7 games into his 2020 season.
Beckham finally returned to the field mostly healthy, but the former Pro Bowler was clearly disgruntled by his limited action on offense this year. Through his first 6 games, he was able to earn just 17 catches on 32 targets for 232 yards.
Now that he has been released, there will be several teams looking to put in waiver claims for this household name. Should the Steelers be one of them?
Steelers should avoid the Odell drama
In all likelihood, there are going to be several teams with higher waiver claims that explore bringing in Odell Beckham. However, he is a high-profile player who can essentially dictate where he goes at this point in his career. Though Odell is obligated to go to the team that claims him, he could pull an ‘Antonio Brown’ and essentially tell a team he will refuse to show up if claimed by them.
The question is whether or not he would do this if Pittsburgh threw their hat in the ring. While Pittsburgh could use an extra playmaker at the position after losing JuJu Smith-Schuster for the year with a shoulder injury, the Steelers are probably best to avoid this altogether.
At 29 years old, I still believe that Odell has plenty left in the tank and that the talented receiver was being underutilized in Cleveland. However, it’s not worth the risk of the drama that could ensue.
Hypothetically, let’s say Beckham was fine with coming to Pittsburgh. Is there a set amount of targets he would need to receive each game in order to stay satisfied? We know full well how much Ben Roethlisberger loves throwing to Diontae Johnson, and adding Odell to the mix isn’t going to change that. Would a big-name receiver with a history of drama be okay with this?
Even a mild-mannered, high-character receiver like James Washington was notably unhappy with his limited usage. While I don’t doubt that Beckham would get many more targets and snaps, Ben’s inability to consistently throw the ball down the field (or consistently throw to anyone not named ‘Johnson’) is sure to upset Odell.
I think Odell Beckham has a chance to revive his fallen career with a pass-happy squad that is willing to get him involved early and often on offense, but I don’t see Pittsburgh being that team. The Steelers would be wise to let someone else claim him.