Jets defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson doesn’t particularly care for one of the receivers that players for the other team that plays in MetLife Stadium. Richardson feels differently about the other receiver on that team.
Via Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, Richardson said Tuesday that Odell Beckham Jr. should indeed be the highest-paid player in football.
“Honestly, I understand why he said that,” Richardson told Mehta. “And honestly, he should be, because the NFL makes a lot of money off of him. . . .
“Why not? You can pretty much throw the ball anywhere in his direction and he’ll go catch it. It all depends on your team, bro. If this guy’s the guy that’s getting it done day in and day out, he should be the highest [paid]. Then you include the entertainment value that he brings to the Giants and football in general. You sell a lot of T-shirts and jerseys off his name, so why not? The dude is a superstar. There’s no doubting that at all.”
There’s also no doubting that Richardson questions the notion that the position a player plays sets his value.
“Why only pay a quarterback $25 million a year?” Richardson said. “Do you know how many ass quarterbacks there are in this league? It’s a lot. Bad quarterbacks. It’s a lot. It’s a lot. So, if there are more bad quarterbacks getting paid, then why not pay great receivers?”
As previously explained, Beckham could approach highest-paid status if he commits to playing on a year-to-year basis, with franchise tags in 2019, 2020, and 2021 ultimately putting him north of $30 million per year. That’s why the Giants should consider approaching him right now with an offer that would pay a lot less than what he’d make one year at a time.
It may take even less to get him signed now than $25 million per year in new money. As one league source recently explained it to PFT, Beckham’s $1.8 million salary for 2017 could make him susceptible to reluctantly accepting a contract that makes him the highest-paid receiver in the league.
The Steelers gave Antonio Brown a four-year, $68 million extension earlier this year. If the Giants were to put on the table a four-year extension with new money averaging somewhere between $17 million and $20 million per year and leave it there, Beckham may eventually be inclined to opt for the sure thing, since the sure thing will give him the kind of existence-changing security that he won’t get over the final two years of his rookie contract.
For now, there’s no sign that the two sides are negotiating. Co-owner John Mara has suggested it could happen during the season. And that could be the best time to get Beckham to shift the injury risk to the team and grab a contract that won’t make him the highest-paid player in the league, but that will give him more money than he could ever spend.