It wasn’t asked at the Odell Beckham Jr. introductory press conference. It might not be asked when the powers-that-be convene later today for the press conference regarding the new Lamar Jackson deal.
The question was posted to Ravens G.M. Eric DeCosta on Wednesday. What does he say to those who say the Ravens grossly overpaid Beckham ($15 million guaranteed on a one-year deal), in relation to what else was out there for him?
“I think a lot of factors go into whatever you decide to pay a player,” DeCosta said on #PFTPM. “I mean, we look at it from a lot of different lenses. You know, one-year deal. Obviously, we paid a lot of money to him. We think we’re gonna get that benefit from him as a player.
“But we’re looking at a lot of other things too. We’re looking at potentially what he might get as a [compensatory] pick the following year, on a one-year deal, has a good year for us, hits the market next year, what’s that gonna look like? We were looking at things like the benefit to the community, the benefit in ticket sales, jersey sales. How’s he gonna play? What’s he gonna do for our offense? What do our coaches think about him? Remember, [offensive coordinator] Todd Monken had a relationship with him, so we had some information about OBJ.
“And then how’s it going to affect Lamar as a passer, you know? How’s he going to play? We want to maximize Lamar’s ability. I’ve probably done a poor job at doing that over the last couple of years in some ways by not having more receivers around him. And we love the guys we have, but you know, in terms of building the best possible offense, that’s a factor, too. So, you know, every situation has residual values associated, every player that you bring in is different and they affect things differently: leadership, ability, community, whatever that might be long term and we see OBJ as a big part of that whole thing.”
DeCosta also addressed the question of whether adding OBJ broke the ice on a Lamar Jackson deal.
“Well, I don’t think it hurt,” DeCosta said. “I think Lamar was probably happy. I mean, I think his social media posts indicated that he was happy about the OBJ signing, but for us, you know, it was more about building out the receiver room as best as possible not necessarily as an olive branch to Lamar Jackson but building the best team we could at the time.”
Something broke the ice, because Lamar has now officially signed a new, five-year deal to stay with the Ravens. For at least the first year, Beckham will be his teammate.