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Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPN
MIAMI — Odell Beckham Jr. feels at peace with where his NFL career has taken him.
The 10-year veteran wide receiver made three Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams before signing with the Miami Dolphins this offseason, where he will assume a role behind Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, who have combined for more receiving yards over the past two seasons than any other duo in the league.
Beckham is comfortable with a support role at this point of his career, and he chooses to look forward rather than backward.
“I think we all just push each other. And for me, at this place in my life and my career, I haven’t been the No. 1 in a minute,” Beckham said Wednesday. “You could go look at targets, you could go look at anything, that’s not really where I’ve been at. So just understanding your role and how can you be the very best at that role, maximize those opportunities. Don’t look for more or less, just stay within that present moment and I think you’ll find a way to succeed.
“It’s amazing. It gives you a huge sense of peace. I feel like I used to carry a lot of anger or resentment or whatever it was. Now I just feel at peace. You’re able to train, you’re able to play the game that you love again. You kind of get past all the business side or whatever could be holding you back. A part of me feels like this is an opportunity for it to just be football.”
Beckham’s 4,122 receiving yards from 2014 to 2016 remain the third-most in NFL history by a player in their first three seasons. The 2014 first-round pick has just 3,810 receiving yards in six seasons since, however, and hasn’t surpassed 1,000 yards in a single season since 2019.
Injuries have played a large part in his statistical decline. He fractured his left ankle after playing just four games in 2017, suffered a torn ACL in 2020 and again in the Super Bowl at the end of the 2021 season.
After not signing with a team in 2022, he inked a one-year, $15 million deal with the Baltimore Ravens last season. His 565 yards in 2023 marked his highest total since that 2019 season.
“An incredible start and then just the way that life goes — things happen to people,” Beckham said. “But I think my favorite thing speaking on myself is resiliency. Give me the best of the best in the world and put them through what I’ve been through at the highest level, and let me see them rebound and bounce and still be here to this day standing in front of whoever still daring to be great … still trying with all the things that get to be said about you and all that.
“I’m just going to keep going, I’m a competitor. Now that’s why it’s kind of like forget the middle part. We read a book. The start is going to capture us, we read the body of the story and then how is it going to end? That’s kind of where I’m at: Let’s have a great ending to this story.”
According to ESPN Stats & Information, Beckham’s 565 receiving yards last season were second-most among any NFL player last season with 35 receptions or less. His 27 first downs on 32 catches were also the most of any player at that benchmark. Since coach Mike McDaniel was hired in 2022, no Dolphins receiver other than Hill and Waddle has recorded more than 32 catches or 417 yards in a single season.
Beckham said the opportunity to find soft spots in coverage was a key talking point between he and McDaniel, who sold him on signing with Miami.
“He was speaking football. We sat down for hours and we were just talking football,” Beckham said. “It just got me excited thinking about it. He pulled up my film compared to what they’re doing here and just kind of married the things. I’ve seen an opportunity, and I think time will tell at the end that this was the right decision.”
Beckham joins an offense led by quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who led the NFL in passing yards last season. It’ll be an adjustment, however, as Beckham said it’ll take getting used to a left-handed quarterback.
“They said he just throws different. They said the accuracy and the spin, they’re like it’s not really like he’s left-handed,” Beckham said. “Just watching his film, there’s a lot of great things that he’s been doing. He did it at Alabama, did it here with the Dolphins.
“Like I said, I’ve just seen an opportunity when I really watched the film, when I really sat down and didn’t look at a destination. I looked at myself in the mirror and a place for me and my career. I’ve just seen a lot of opportunity here.”
