The Giants and their top player agreed to a contract extension through 2023. More details on that agreement emerged Wednesday. It may not be as player-friendly as initially advertised, and despite the overall package making the Giants weapon the highest-paid wideout, the early-years cash flow doesn’t place Beckham in front of his top peers.
Odell Beckham Jr. will collect $52.71MM over the first three years of this deal, with Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk adding it amounts to a six-year, $98.459MM deal when considering Beckham’s 2018 fifth-year option season and it tying him to the Giants for five subsequent years. The 25-year-old wideout will collect a $20MM signing bonus that will be fully paid out by February 2019, per Florio.
The first two base salaries on this deal — 2018’s $1.459MM and 2019’s $16.75MM — are fully guaranteed, and Florio adds $12.75MM of Beckham’s $14MM 2020 base is guaranteed for injury and becomes fully guaranteed on Day 3 of the ’20 league year. The same structure is present for the 2021 season; $12.79MM of that base salary guaranteed for injury and all $14.5MM becomes fully guaranteed on Day 3 of the ’21 league year. Beckham’s 2022 and ’23 bases ($13.75MM apiece) are not guaranteed.
Interestingly, the Pro Bowler has $3MM tied to training camp showings in the final three years of the deal. Beckham will receive $1MM if he shows up on Day 1 of training camp from 2021-23, illustrating the Giants are preparing for a possible future holdout if a late-20s version of Beckham decides the future wideout market has made him underpaid. Of course, $1MM penalties might not deter Beckham from a holdout in the event he decides to take that course of action down the road.
Beckham’s $52.71MM over the deal’s first three years is more than $7MM less than initially reported, Florio notes. It appears Mike Evans‘ $55MM over the first three years remains the wide receiver standard. Both Evans and Antonio Brown‘s four-year payments ($68MM) match Beckham’s, leading Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap to be underwhelmed by this agreement for a wide receiver who’s not being paid considerably more than Sammy Watkins. Beckham’s three-year haul is barely half of what Aaron Rodgers will receive in that span ($103MM), Albert Breer of SI.com tweets.
As for OBJ’s incentives, they’re all tied to his 2022 and ’23 seasons. Florio notes he can earn $2.5MM each season based on meeting certain specified statistical benchmarks. These figures, ones that will be tied to Beckham’s production when Eli Manning‘s successor is likely throwing passes, may become moot if Beckham and the Giants agree to a future extension, however.
Still say this was a dumb move for Giants. He has talent, as well as attitude problems, as well as he got paid for sitting out injured quite a bit.