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 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 publicly, 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.”

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. 

He’s been held 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 game—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: 

It’s a small sample, so by no means should we conclude that Beckham’s historically strong start was some sort of fluke. But it is nevertheless 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 that he was so flustered, so traumatized by that episode that he’s a different player now.

But it’s also possible that …

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