What Has Happened to Odell Beckham Jr.?
A lot has been made of Odell Beckham Jr.'s temperament. Opposing defenders can get into Beckham's head, they say. They can cause him to lose his cool, lose his temper, lose his focus. At least that's how it appears.
The New York Giants wide receiver was suspended last year in part for launching himself at cornerback Josh Norman helmet-first after the two had spent an afternoon battling physically and verbally. Earlier this season, during another heated matchup with Norman, Beckham threw a tantrum on the Giants' sideline.
That drove head coach Ben McAdoo to declare, per Dan Duggan of NJ Advance Media, that the 23-year-old "needs to control his emotions better and be less of a distraction to himself and his teammates."
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But it's almost as if Beckham's antics have distracted us from the fact that he hasn't been the same player who once looked like the NFL's most dangerous offensive weapon—and had the early-career numbers to back it up.
Beckham has caught fewer than 45 percent of the passes thrown his way on four occasions in his NFL career. But two of those four have come in the last two weeks, with the wideout pulling in only three of nine targets in a Week 4 loss to the Minnesota Vikings and only five of 12 in a Week 5 loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Opponents have held him to fewer than 90 receiving yards just 14 times in his 32-game career, but five of those have come in his last six affairs, dating back to Week 17 of last season. That contest—a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles—marked Beckham's return from that one-game suspension. He caught just five passes for 54 yards against a poor defense, and he's reached the 90-yard mark just once since.
Look at his numbers pre- and post-suspension, and you'll notice quite the contrast:
| Games | 26 | 6 |
| Catches/game | 7.0 | 5.3 |
| Reception % | 64.8 | 55.2 |
| Yards/catch | 14.8 | 12.9 |
| Yards/game | 103.9 | 68.8 |
| TD/game | 0.96 | 0.17 |
| PFF grade | 37.0 | 2.6 |
| Drop rate | 3.2 | 8.6 |
His post-suspension numbers comprise a small sample, so by no means should we conclude that Beckham's historically strong start was a fluke. But it is concerning that his rate-based numbers have fallen off a cliff since the middle of December.
It might not be a coincidence that Beckham hasn't been the same since that tough game against Norman. It's entirely possible he was so flustered, so traumatized by that episode that he's a different player now.
But it's also possible that opposing defenses have figured him out. The surprise element is no longer there, especially as he and the Giants play teams they've seen before. Three of those recent six games came against divisional foes Philadelphia, Dallas and Washington, and the New Orleans Saints also kept him in check less than 11 months after facing him in 2015.
This could stem from an idea first posed in 2015 by Beckham's college teammate, Arizona Cardinals defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, who suggested on NBCSN’s Pro Football Talk that "the quick jam" could be the key to giving Beckham trouble in coverage.
"I think somebody in his face the entire game," Mathieu said, per Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, "it’ll probably give him some trouble."
Appearing on the same program, Beckham agreed.
Now, this isn't rocket science. Beckham is only 5'11", 198 pounds, and teams had begun to use aggressive press coverage against him before the 2015 season. The Jacksonville Jaguars did so in a preseason game that summer, and they held him to zero catches on five targets.
But combine that potential physical advantage with the mental edge defenders appear to be establishing with tough coverage at the line of scrimmage, and you may have a partial explanation for why Beckham's production has plummeted.
He's also faced some strong corners and tough, all-too-familiar defenses. Guys like the young, talented Quinten Rollins (24) in a tough outing against a solid Green Bay defense, the young, talented Xavier Rhodes (26) in a tough outing against a top-five Minnesota defense, and the talented trio of Morris Claiborne, Orlando Scandrick and Brandon Carr in a tough outing against a Dallas D that has looked good in 2016. Plus he had to deal with Norman and the Redskins.
Still, this whole slump started with a dud performance against Philadelphia's bottom-five pass defense, and he struggled a bit against journeyman corner Sterling Moore and a Saints unit that was next-level bad in 2015 and hasn't been much better this year.
And besides, it's not as though tough matchups slowed Beckham when he roasted top-10 defenses New England (104 yards and a touchdown), Carolina (76 yards and a touchdown) and the New York Jets (149 yards and a touchdown) in 2015, or highly rated corners Richard Sherman (four catches on six targets for 66 yards), Perrish Cox (four catches on five targets for 70 yards) and Carr (four catches on four targets for 90 yards and a touchdown) in 2014.
But he has seen a lot of this at the line of scrimmage:
That's what Philadelphia did to Beckham for much of that Week 17 matchup last year, interestingly enough after he made an easy catch against off coverage on the opening drive. From that point forward, Beckham was targeted on just six of quarterback Eli Manning's remaining 42 throws.
Dallas also assaulted him immediately on his first target on the first drive of its Week 1 game:
That resulted in an incomplete pass, and Beckham was targeted just seven times the rest of the day. In fact, all four of his catches came on plays in which he wasn't touched within five yards and had some pad. Like this, which led to a seven-yard completion:
Against the Saints in Week 2, his first catch of the day came against off coverage:
But the New Orleans D didn't adjust and refused to push Beckham around at the line of scrimmage. As a result, Beckham caught a season-high eight passes—all of which came against soft, loose coverage.
The Redskins didn't get in his face in Week 3, either, and sure enough Beckham had a season-high 121 yards. But the Vikings and Packers played him a lot tighter in Weeks 4 and 5, and he had only eight catches on 21 total targets during that ugly two-game stretch:
It's enough to cause you to wonder if good defenses have at least a clue as to how to solve Odell Beckham Jr., both psychologically and physically.
And if that's the case, Beckham and his coaches have work to do.
Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012. Advanced stats provided by Pro Football Focus.
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