Odell Beckham Jr. says he does not know why the Giants gave him the run along after they cut him loose, turning a routine roster move into a public grievance. Beckham said he could have been playing this year somewhere and making an impact, a sharper answer than the team has offered about why it moved on.
He posted multiple comments on Instagram after the release, putting his frustration in public view just as the Giants settled on a roster choice they said was about what was best for the team. John Harbaugh put it bluntly: “It’s what’s best for the team.”
That explanation matters because Beckham had barely made the 53-man roster in August, and the timing left him without the normal runway a player needs to settle in. If Calvin Austin III had not suffered a torn ACL, Beckham may have been cut then instead, which shows how thin the margin was all along.
The Giants also said they needed the roster spot for a player who can contribute on special teams, which is the kind of decision that can sound cold but is often the point of late roster moves. Harbaugh doubled down on that logic, saying, “That’s it. And if you think it’s anything else, then you don’t know me and you don’t know what we’re doing here.... I’m not hiding anything. It’s not Watergate.”
Beckham acknowledged that he should have known better than to join the Giants, a line that lands differently now that he is on the outside looking in. He is free to try to make an impact with another team in 2026, but that path is not simple: at best, he is looking at a practice squad spot and a chance to prove he can eventually help again. Coming in cold without offseason, training camp or preseason work makes the next move less like a fresh start and more like a test of whether any team still wants to take the chance.
For Beckham, the public fight is already over the reason he was let go; the real question is whether another team decides his next chance is worth the wait.
