Report: OBJ, Smith-Schuster among NYG WR workouts
Mike Florio and Chris Simms break down what the Giants are really looking for from their reported big-name wide receiver workouts.
Video Transcript
The Giants suffered an injury last week, Gunner Olszewski, receiver, kick returner, out for the year with a torn Achilles tendon.
They have workouts today.
Tryouts, football tryouts, as they said in the remake of The Longest Yard.
Braxton Berrios, Juju Smith-Schuster, Anthony Miller, and drum roll please, Odell Beckham- Boom Jr. OBJ.
Yeah, it's, it, it's interesting- So- Yeah, to see what happens.
Well, I think they gotta be You know, Olszewski, like you said, right?
You got Malik Nabers, it doesn't sound like he's gonna be ready to go early on in the football year.
You look at the rest of their team and you go, "Okay, well, there's Malachi Fields there.
He's young.
How much do we wanna depend on him as a rookie out of Notre Dame?"
They do have Darnell Mooney, so they're probably just looking for another veteran presence that they know, 'cause again, insurance policy.
Hey, he's the fourth receiver.
We know he knows how to play, he can read coverages, he'd do that type of stuff, and that's what I think they're probably looking for in these tryouts, like you said.
The Beckham and Giants flirtation dates back to March.
He was in Arizona, the league meetings were in Arizona.
He got together with the Giants then.
He had a workout on April 20.
And Beckham was at Brian Burns charity softball game on Saturday.
He talked to the New York Post, he said, "It's a place I never wanted to leave.
It's a special place in my heart.
I am relying on the things I rely on, my faith, just being able to spend time away made me realize things.
I left some things unfinished.
Hopefully, we'll see what God has working out for me."
And it was Joe Harbaugh who said a couple of weeks ago, "It's gotta be right for both parties."
This is the key.
This is the key.
Odell wants to be the kind of player that can make a difference.
I'm pretty sure he can make a team in the NFL right now, but can he make a difference?
And I think this comes down to what the Giants envision- Yeah and what he envisions.
Mm-hmm.
Where are the Giants looking to fill out the depth chart?
They're not looking for a one, they're not looking for a two.
Are they looking for a three, a four, a five?
And as we said earlier, the farther you go down the depth chart, the more likely you're gonna be expected to play special teams.
Gunner Olszewski's primarily a kick returner.
Right, yep.
Not a receiver.
He's not third on the depth chart, he's second string.
So what the Giants envision, and that's gonna drive what they offer him.
That's where the two circles of the Venn diagram may not meet, because Beckham may still think, "I'm gonna come back and it's gonna be 2014 all over again," and, and that's not the case.
No, definitely not.
So they have to be on the same page as to what his role is, and is he gonna be happy with it, or is he gonna be resentful and complaining and say, "I didn't, I didn't sign up for this."
Yeah.
No, that, that's, you know, they're, they're gonna have to let all these guys know.
I think that's what they're gonna be used as, to, to your point there, is more of, like, the fourth, the fifth receiver.
Guy's injured, or a certain play or moment where they just might trust him in this little situation or scenario, but I think that's ultimately what it is.
And yeah, within that, I, I don't think that any of these guys are gonna get any money if they make the team.
It's gonna be veteran minimum.
That's what I would expect.
I don't think the, the, any of the guys they're trying out here have much to stand on.
They're a little bit in parts of their career where, you know, it's desperate.
It's just, "Hey, I'd, I'd like to be on a team and show that I can still play."
And then maybe buy another year to where maybe you can get a little bit more money if you have a good year or something like that.
But yeah, I, I don't think it's gonna be as a major contributor, that's for sure.
And, and, you know, the Olszewski thing, I don't think affects Th- this is probably something I would think was going to go down regardless of the Olszewski injury.
And to me, it's just more about, hey, maybe, again, like I said, the rookie out of Notre Dame, maybe Darnell Mooney, who, who was hurt not too long ago when he was in Chicago right before he went to Atlanta.
Maybe they're worried about some of that, and that's where they just want another guy, again, to have that insurance policy.
We'll see where it goes, but yeah, OBJ was, man, he was a big deal up here with the New York Giants in his prime.
It was something like we've never really seen before, and it went too fast, and it was a shame to see him go to Cleveland.
Juju Smith-Schuster has spent the last two years in Kansas City with Matt Nagy, who is now the offensive coordinator of the New York Giants, so there is some familiarity there.
But you know, when you consider Smith-Schuster had 917 receiving yards as a rookie with the Steelers.
In 2018, when he was named team MVP over Antonio Brown, and that caused Brown to storm out and never come back, he had 1,426 receiving yards.
Since 2018- Ah 552- Whoa 831, 129, 933, 260, 231, and 345.
Yeah.
That was last year, 33 catches, 345 yards with the Kansas City Chiefs.
And look, he's a guy who every once in a while is gonna pop up and make a play.
Yeah.
But, but again, I think he understands.
He's a guy who would understand he's gonna be fifth on the depth chart.
I'm not sure OBJ is ready to acknowledge, "I'm coming back to New York, but it's gonna be in a far lesser capacity than I enjoyed back in the days when, when, you know, Juju Smith-Schuster was the Steelers team MVP 2018."
That was the last great year.
Truly great year.
He did have 1,000-yard receiving season with the Browns, but his truly great year, I think was 2018.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He was there '14 to '18, and then they made the move to the Browns, and he didn't wanna leave, and, you know, that's an example of a trade that was done without consulting with the player, which I think was a mistake.
Dave Gettleman trade He was in France and he found out he'd been traded to the Browns.
As the Browns, how can you trade for the guy without taking his temperature and, and get an idea that he embraces the opportunity to come to Cleveland?
You can't do that with a high-profile player like OBJ.
Yeah, no, that, that, that was a dicey situation.
That, I was gonna comment on that when you, you know, you talked about Odell Beckham Jr.'s comments when he was at the Brian Burns charity event or whatever else, you know, when he said, "I did not, I never wanted to leave here."
That, that, that's debatable.
You know, I, I don't know how that went down there, but it certainly wasn't like, you know, things were perfect.
And I certainly didn't get the sense that Odell definitely wanted to stay with the Giants at that time, and I think there was real tension there, as we know.
He had kind of became a, a, a thorn in their side, and, and, you know, off of that, they got kind of sick of the distraction and didn't wanna deal with it, and, and they said, "Okay, we're gonna ship your ass out of here."
And yeah, things were never the same.
And it was, it was disappointing, 'cause I mean, come on.
Like we talked about, Odell Beckham Jr., for the first four or five years of his career, was going through a, a, a, a, going, l- looking like he was gonna be maybe the greatest receiver of all time.
You've heard me talk about that.
I mean, it, it, it was special.
It didn't matter who I talked to.
If I talked to a McVay, a Shanahan, an Andy Reid or whatever, they were always like, "Odell Beckham Jr., whoa.
Odell Beck..." Like, I mean, he was viewed like that, and he should've been.
And, of course, he didn't capitalize on, you know, everything he could've once Cleveland and, and the injuries happened and LA.
I vividly recall 2018, early in the year, his interview with Josina Anderson- Right who then was at ESPN, with Lil Wayne.
Lil Wayne.
It was Lil Wayne- Yeah sitting next to him.
Uh-huh.
And it was clear that he was thinking about leaving the Giants.
Yeah.
Based on what he said.
That was a big, big deal at the time, and then after that season, lo and behold, he's traded to the Cleveland Browns.
Shame on the Browns for not making damn sure that he wanted to be there.
Yeah.
It doesn't surprise me when you consider all the dysfunctional moves the Browns have made since Jimmy Haslam bought the team, and I'm sure Haslam said, "Oh, we don't need to tell him.
We don't need to talk to him.
We trade for him.
That's how it works.
That's how it works.
He's, he's gonna come here and he's gonna play here or he's not gonna play," which poisoned the relationship from the get-go
