New York Giants: Durability the concern with Odell Beckham Jr.

Personality and distractions aside, the New York Giants may begin wondering if durability is the major concern regarding Odell Beckham Jr. past 2018.

By now, the hot takes written and spoken about New York Giants superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. are familiar to anybody who has followed the Giants and/or Beckham’s career since 2014.

Beckham is an alleged diva who cares more about taking care of No. 1 than winning with the Giants or any other organization. He causes off-the-field distractions with antics and interviews. He isn’t worth the hassle. Heck, WFAN personality Mike Francesa may not rest until he legitimately runs Beckham out of town one way or another.

Beckham turned 26 years old in November. He is who he is, and that isn’t changing. Whatever you think about that is irrelevant. What those running the Giants, specifically co-owner John Mara and general manager Dave Gettleman, think of Beckham’s personality undoubtedly matters, but the receiver’s reputation may not be the biggest concern as it pertains to his future with the club beyond December.

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It wasn’t much a surprise to learn Beckham would miss the Week 15 showdown versus the Tennessee Titans because of a quad injury. The writing could be seen on the wall Thursday afternoon.

Beckham will be sidelined a second straight game, and he may not feature in the offense anytime soon if words he offered to reporters earlier this week are an indication of what is to come. From Scott Thompson of SNY.tv:

"In the past, Beckham said he might have forced himself on the field. But maturity in the league had him more cautious this time around.“I feel like a younger me wouldn’t have spoke up and said anything,” he admitted. “And then I would’ve went out and played and coulda been worse. So we went and got it checked and we seen whatever we saw. Just kinda going from there.”"

Nobody can blame Beckham for erring on the side of caution. Roughly 16 months ago, Beckham suffered an ankle injury during a preseason game against the Cleveland Browns. He worked to return to the field earlier than expected, but he suffered a fractured left ankle in Week 5. In total, he appeared in four contests during the 2017 season, a season that couldn’t have gone much worse for the organization.

The ankle isn’t a one-off, a freak accident that cost a young man routinely on the field a season of his prime. Beckham’s injury history is more than just lengthy at this point. It’s concerning, and it dates back to his first training camp when a bad hamstring made him unavailable for practices, the entire preseason and four games.

He played through a hip problem and even torched the Baltimore Ravens while not fully healthy in 2016, but his explosiveness went missing in a handful of contests despite the fact he hit the Philadelphia Eagles for a 26-yard score on a slant.

Now comes the quad and inevitable questions about his toughness and desire to give all he can to a team more likely to finish with a losing record than play a down of football in January. Such criticisms may be unfair, but so is life. Not counting the one-game ban he received in 2015, Beckham has missed 18 of 78 games due to injury. Granted, one setback cost him the bulk of 2017, but he hardly seemed to be the Beckham of old when on the field last fall.

When Beckham is healthy and on the field at his best, he’s as good as any play-maker in the sport and a home-run hitter any coach would love to insert into his offense. His cap hit goes up to $21 million next season, per Spotrac, and his missing games because of physical setbacks becomes a little more unforgivable at that price.

Add in that rookie running back Saquon Barkley is as good, if not better, than advertised, and Beckham could become more expendable than he was before the ink dried on his contract.

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Fans have to stop asking themselves if they’d be willing to trade Beckham to a team such as the Cleveland Browns, and instead wonder if Mara, Gettleman and head coach Pat Shurmur will come to an agreement that now might be the wisest time to sell the dynamic receiver who, admittedly, hasn’t yet hit a ceiling he won’t reach if he gets hurt just about every year.

Those customers had better prepare themselves for another winter filled with rumors about where Beckham will play during an upcoming campaign. That’s probably what they’re going to get weeks and months after they open Christmas presents.

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