The Saints won’t put a claim in for Odell Beckham Jr. today, according to head coach Sean Payton (Twitter link via Luke Johnson of the New Orleans Advocate). The Saints could still pursue the wide receiver if he goes unclaimed, but Payton says there’s no possible way for the team to free up the necessary cap space for his current contract. 
“The claiming deadline is today. No, it’s impossible for us to put a claim in on the player,” Payton said. “You just have to look at the salary cap space. And if we were going to put in a claim, it wouldn’t be something we discuss. I know it makes hit-worthy news.”
Beckham is hoping to join up with the Saints, Seahawks, or 49ers — the latter two teams are at least in the top half of the priority order. Still, they might prefer to wait things out and sign Beckham for less. The 49ers are projected to have just ~$4MM in space, so they’d have to clear space in a hurry, just like the Saints. In theory, the Seahawks do have enough room to take on OBJ’s remaining ~$7MM in salary — they’re currently $13MM below the max.
OBJ has also been connected to the Raiders, but they’ve since signed DeSean Jackson. High-priority teams like the Jaguars and WFT could also consider Beckham, but the WR wouldn’t be too jazzed about it.
Why would he want to sign with the 49’ers and that coach. I guess it makes sense as both player and coach are so overrated.
lol I think OBJ needs to have a good year in the XFL to resuscitate his reputation.
There are no issues with his reputation. His behavior was perfectly fine in Cleveland.
That we know of, however one has to consider how much better Cleveland was in general every time he was absent.
I hope a garbage team team claims him, he and the rest of the league need to learn an important lesson.
The owners and players are millionaires because fans continue to tolerate any kind of behavior to get their “football fix”. That is the lesson that was learned.
Bengals have cap space and LSU connection that could entice him, though they’ve dropped two straight.
I like how he gets the attention and hype of a superstar. He’s not even an impact player anymore. Yawn.