Giants, OBJ Agree To Extension

The Giants and star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr are closing in on a five-year mega-extension, according to Ian Rapoport and Kim Jones of NFL.com (on Twitter). It’s a five-year extension worth up to $95MM with $65MM guaranteed overall, according to Josina Anderson of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

The value of Beckham’s new deal is $90MM over the five added years, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets. That’s $18MM per year in new money – or $19MM/year, if counting the potential incentives. Either way, it’s the highest average annual value for any receiver in the NFL. Beckham also gets $41MM fully guaranteed at signing, plus another $24MM in injury guarantees for a total of $65MM in guarantees.

The deal is a big win for Beckham across the board, as he leads wide receivers in AAV, total guarantees, and full guarantees at signing. Previously, Antonio Brown‘s $17MM per year represented the annual standard for receivers, and Mike Evans‘ $55MM in total guarantees and $38.25MM in full guarantees were the statistical chart-toppers.

In terms of the average annual value on the “new money,” OBJ is now the highest-paid receiver in NFL history. He’ll also collect about $60MM within the first three years of the deal.

The two sides have wrestled over the extension for some time. Although OBJ is one of the most talented receivers in the game, he missed the majority of the 2017 season with injury and the Giants had concerns about his maturity. This offseason, Beckham flirted with the idea of a training camp holdout, but ultimately showed up for work and impressed team brass.

I see what I expected to see when we started to communicate back in February,Shurmur said in February. “This guy loves to play football, he trains extremely hard, he’s totally engaged in the meetings behind the scenes, the things that the world is not aware of, and he’s got a lot of passion for the game. We were just out in a walk-through and I saw three or four times when he was talking to different players about certain techniques within the play. That’s all good stuff.”

The 2014 first-round pick was limited to only four games last season and finished with just 25 receptions for 302 yards and three scores. However, he finished the previous three campaigns with at least 1,300 receiving yards.

At 25 (26 in November), Beckham is four years younger than Brown, and he’s outproduced the other members of his class on a per-year basis. The Giants paid a pretty penny to lock up the three-time Pro Bowler through 2023, but it will be worthwhile if he plays up to his ability.

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