Odell Beckham Jr. Spoke Out About What Went Wrong During The End Of His Time With The Giants And How They Ruined The End Of Eli Manning’s Career
Alright, so we're gonna get into this now, huh? I figured some sort of Odell Beckham piece or soundbite would come out at some point next week considering the Giants play the Browns in Week 15 and the media wouldn't be doing their job if they couldn't get Odell to put something on the record as he recovers from a torn ACL. But I didn't think we'd get that something today with the Cardinals next on the schedule.
Now while Odell had no shortage of haters amongst Giants fans, I don't think anybody can really disagree with what he's saying there, right? I mean outside of the playoff run in 2016 that happened thanks to a bunch of big signings on defense and Odell putting the offense on his back, the Giants were a shitshow for a good chunk of Odell's time there. Did he contribute to some of that by doing a couple of dumb ass things that also got blown up by the media? Definitely. But I don't think anybody can deny that Jerry Reese completely botched the end of Eli's career with his awful drafting, hiring two boobs as head coach after firing Tom Coughlin, and trying to fix deeply flawed parts of the team with short fix, expensive free agent band-aids.
Part of that falls on John Mara too because he was the one that allowed Reese to stick around those last few years, Eli to get benched for Geno fucking Smith, and the subsequent make good attempt to the fans and Eli by throwing Eli back into the fire with a piss poor team. Pretty crazy that after all those comments about Eli holding Odell back, Odell clearly had his best years with Eli, including a rookie season that still somehow doesn’t get enough respect for how absurd it was.
Whatever. I loved Odell Beckham, saw that man do stuff on a football field in his first few seasons that I haven't seen before or since, and always defended him because he did get an unfair shake from people just because he was a huge star playing in New York. I think the Lil Wayne interview after he signed his new contract was the straw that broke the camels back for me even though I was crushed when the Giants finally traded him just because I know how incredibly talented he was when healthy.
But now that he's gone and Big Blue have built what appears to be an actual sustainable team thanks partially due to Dave Gettleman getting Jabril Peppers, Kevin Zeitler, and the pick that become Sexy Dexy Lawrence to spur the return of Giants football based in defense an a power running game in return for Odell and Olivier Vernon, I have no interest in thinking about anything Giants before Coach Judge arrived right now.
Get well Odell but we are on to Arizona.