Green Bay Packers: 3 Reasons Odell Beckham won’t be in Titletown

While the thought of Odell Beckham Jr. being traded to the Green Bay Packers is a fun one, don’t expect it to happen this offseason.

It was recently brought to light by Peter Bukowski of Packer Report and Locked On Packers that Skip Bayless of FS1 – take that source as you will – had stated that Odell Beckham Jr. has privately suggested that he’d play for the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers. Whether Bayless’ claim is 100 percent accurate we don’t know for sure, however, this has sparked a fun conversation among the Packer faithful. But if you’re holding your breath that this trade will happen, I’m here to bring you back to reality.

Of course having Beckham line up across from Davante Adams would instantly give the Green Bay Packers the best one-two punch at wide receiver in the NFL and it just so happens that they are in need of some talent at that exact position. Couple that receiving duo with Aaron Rodgers as your quarterback and the sky is the limit.

So I’m certainly not here to nix the trade because of Beckham’s talent or production, nobody is denying how special of a player he is. In his career he has been a 1,000 yard receiver in four of his first five NFL seasons – excluding an injury shortened year in 2017 – and once again he is on pace in 2019.

However, I will point out that his production has dipped the last two seasons and he’s on pace for the worst year in his career from a production standpoint with Cleveland. But then again, that’s not entirely his fault as the New York Giants were led by an aging Eli Manning and the Browns are, well, the Browns.

Yet with all of that said and with all of the positives of acquiring him, this deal just isn’t very likely to happen.

The Cost

Naturally, a wide receiver of Beckham’s caliber is going to cost quite a bit. Both to acquire and to keep. This year is the first of Beckham’s five year – $90 million contract and the corresponding cap hits from his deal for the next four seasons are as follows:

2020: $14.25 million

2021: $15.75 million

2022: $15.0 million

2023: $15.0 million

That is of course unless Beckham and the Green Bay Packers strike a new deal, but the figures above are going to very likely be in the ballpark.

While the projected cap numbers for 2020 can vary, it doesn’t look like the Packers are going to have much flexibility as ‘Over The Cap’ has them with only $17.8 million in available space next season. And with Green Bay needing to extend Kenny Clark and David Bakhtiari at some point, along with potentially re-signing Blake Martinez – as well as other free agents – allocating that much cap space to only Beckham just doesn’t seem feasible.

As for addressing their need for a wide receiver this offseason, the 2020 NFL draft is going to be incredibly deep at the position and some draft experts have called it the best all around wide receiver class in years. And although whoever Green Bay selects won’t realistically be as good as Beckham initially, they will fill that wide receiver need at a much cheaper cost.

Not to mention that the amount of draft capital and potential players to land Beckham would be expensive and at least in 2020, this Green Bay Packers team doesn’t have any extra high draft picks available.

Potential Issues

Although extremely talented, if traded Beckham would be on his third team in three seasons, which is a bit of a red flag if you’re asking me. He would essentially force his way out of New York because he was unhappy after signing a brand new contract. Now in Cleveland, there’s been the watch incident, video of him not going to the huddle during a play call, and when asked about his future with the Browns, instead of stopping all speculation, Beckham would reply with “couldn’t tell you what’s going to happen.”

In Brian Gutekunst’s short time as the General Manager of the Green bay Packers we’ve seen that he has little tolerance for nonsense on or off the field. He was quick to trade Damarious Randall shortly after taking over as GM and he cut Jermaine Whitehead and Ty Montgomery mid-season.

Now, one big difference between the Packers, Giants and Browns is that Green Bay is winning at the moment , and that is usually a cure-all for most issues. However, these are still valid concerns that Gutekunst and the Packers should have.

Would Cleveland even trade Beckham?

All of the speculation that we’ve seen has been in regards to whether or not the Packers would make the trade. But would John Dorsey and Cleveland even make a deal? I say no.

For one, despite this being a ‘down season’ by Beckham’s standards, he’s still a highly productive player who is averaging over 14 yards per catch and is on pace for another 1,000 yard season. Also, they gave up their former first round pick Jabrill Peppers, their 2019 first round pick, and their 2019 third round pick just to acquire him.

Meaning, they’d want a similar return if they were going to trade him, which going back to our discussion about the cost, I can’t see the Green Bay Packers going through with it. Nor do I think it’s an option for the Browns at this time, unless they were blown away by an offer.

Without a doubt if I could snap my fingers and have Beckham’s talent and production on this Packers squad, I certainly would. But from Green Bay’s perspective along with all of the moving parts involved, it just isn’t going to happen, even though it sure is fun to talk about.