The Giants signed Odell Beckham Jr. on Monday, bringing back the receiver later the same day he took part in a team workout and weeks after the club’s need at the position became more urgent. The move came after Gunner Olszewski’s torn Achilles tendon left New York looking for help at receiver.
Beckham’s return had been building in plain sight. Over the weekend, he was at Brian Burns’ charity softball game signing autographs for fans, and he spoke to Brandon London of the New York Post about the possibility of coming back to the Giants. “It’s a place I never wanted to leave, and it’s just a special place in my heart, just to see all of these Big Blue jerseys -- just hoping for the best,” Beckham said.
That interest turned into actual roster movement on Monday, when the Giants held a wide receiver workout that included Beckham, Anthony Miller and JuJu Smith-Schuster. The team also agreed to a one-year deal with veteran Braxton Berrios earlier in the day, a logical stopgap while Olszewski recovers, before later signing Beckham as well. The sequence showed a front office trying to patch a thin position group and, at the same time, leaving open the possibility of a larger swing on a familiar name.
Beckham had already worked out for the Giants earlier this offseason, so the door to a reunion was not new. But the appeal of bringing him back carries a different kind of weight for a franchise that drafted him No. 12 overall in 2014, watched him make three straight Pro Bowls and top 1,300 yards in each of his first three seasons, then saw him leave for Cleveland in 2019. He has not reached 1,300 yards or made another Pro Bowl since 2016, and his latest seasons have not come close to that peak.
That matters because the recent version of Beckham has been more stop-and-start than star turn. He did not play at all in 2025 after a six-game PED ban, appeared in nine games for the Miami Dolphins in 2024 and finished with nine catches for 55 yards. His 2021 season ended with an ACL tear during the Los Angeles Rams’ Super Bowl run, and he has not been a major part of an offense since then.
Still, Beckham sounded like a player looking for one more clean run. “I think you just rely on the things you always rely on, which is my faith,” he said, adding that God had a special purpose and journey for him and that time away helped him realize some things. He also said, “You know, I left some things unfinished,” before ending with, “I guess we gonna find out soon.” For the Giants, the only real question now is whether that unfinished business becomes production on the field, or just another brief reunion with a familiar face.
