Odell Beckham Jr. didn’t seem to know that a trade to the Browns was coming. Now that it’s only a few hours from becoming official, the question becomes whether the Browns know what Beckham may want.
Less than a week after Antonio Brown scrapped a trade from the Steelers to the Bills either because he didn’t want to play for them or because the Bills didn’t want to pay him more than he was due to make or both, the Giants by all appearances shipped Beckham to the Browns without getting Beckham to provide his blessing to the move. Beckham seemingly will embrace the change, but will he use this as an opportunity to improve a contract that is scheduled to pay out $77 million over the next five years?
In the aftermath of the trade, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media said that it’s his “understanding” that Beckham wants a new deal. Whether he wants a new deal and whether he’ll publicly agitate for one remains to be seen.
Beckham wanted a new deal from the Giants for more than a year before he got one. It prompted him to avoid some offseason workouts in 2017, but never to clamor openly for a contractual adjustment. With a fully-guaranteed salary of $16.75 million this year and more guarantees stretching into 2020, Beckham likely will bide his time, at least for now. If he has a big season in first year as a Brown, that’s when the effort could come to get more.
Regardless of what happens moving forward, Beckham received $21.495 million for 12 games in 2018. That should tide him over, at least for a while.