Terron Beckham, the cousin of All-Pro wideout Odell Beckham Jr., got a workout with the Jets this past week. Despite having not played football since high school, Beckham believes he has the skill set to be an NFL running back. However, he’ll first have to overcome rumors of his steroid use.
“It’s tough because I work so hard. I worked that hard all my life. And you can’t just change people’s minds,” Beckham told Darryl Slater of NJ.com. “If they feel like, ‘What you look like or what you do, you can’t do that without having whatever substances.’ It’s crazy. All I have to say is that I’m here, and they’ve done their tests or whatever. I’m cool. I’ve never had to do anything, and I’m fine. I have great genetics. I work hard. And that’s all I have to say about that. I just kind of leave [those questions] alone now. I used to try to explain everything, but I’m like, ‘I’m just blessed and I work hard.’”
Let’s take a look at some more rookie notes from around the league…
- Vikings punter Jeff Locke isn’t guaranteed to make the squad, as the organization brought in a pair of rookie punters to compete for the job. As Mark Craig of the Star Tribune writes, Texas Tech’s Taylor Symmank and West Virginia’s Nick O’Toole will first have to compete with each other. “Talking with [coach Mike Zimmer], he said Jeff has one more year on his contract and we’ll see what happens,” O’Toole said. “He said for me and Taylor to come in and compete and whoever is the better punter this weekend will be signed and that guy is going to compete with Jeff. And that guy could win the job or he could just have his name out there for other teams to see.”
- Packers general manager Ted Thompson made the right choice by not drafting UCLA linebacker Myles Jack, writes Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. Injuries concerns led the Packers to select nose tackle Kenny Clark in the first round, while Jack fell to the second round.
- Despite using a first-round pick on offensive lineman Taylor Decker, there’s uncertainty in the Lions organization regarding which position the Ohio State product will ultimately play. “Like most positions that we have, we want to really find out what they’re all about from a physical standpoint within our system,” said head coach Jim Caldwell (via ESPN.com’s Michael Rothstein). “We certainly know outside of it, so we’ll work fundamentals, techniques. Most of those guys are guys that have some flexibility involved in what they do and how they do it, and you have to at that position. So, we want to see.”