Odell Beckham has “Prioritized” Packers if he Clears Waivers

As I wrote recently, the Green Bay Packers won’t be claiming Odell Beckham Jr. via waivers—they simply don’t have the cap space.

If Beckham is claimed, the new team will inherit his $7.25 million salary, and when it comes to the Packers, they only have $4.6 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap.

However, if Beckham clears waivers, he becomes an unrestricted free agent and can sign wherever he pleases and to a new deal—meaning that his new team won’t be on the hook for his $7.25 million salary.

Well, according to Jordan Schultz, should Beckham clear waivers, he has reportedly “prioritized” the Green Bay Packers.

Beckham would eclipse the 1,000-yard receiving mark in five of his first six NFL seasons, including at least 1,300 yards in each of his first three years. However, his 2020 season was cut short due to an ACL injury, while this season, he had only 17 receptions and 232 yards through six games with Cleveland.

It’s also worth noting that Beckham hasn’t recorded over 1,100 receiving yards since 2016, he hasn’t had over 1,000 yards since 2019, and he has missed time due to injuries in four of his last five seasons. To put it simply, Beckham hasn’t been the receiver we saw early on in his career for several years now.

Yet with that said, having Beckham for eight games as the team’s No. 2 receiver alongside of Davante Adams with Aaron Rodgers under center and Matt LaFleur calling plays is certainly enticing. There’s certainly no such thing as having too many playmakers.

This is a formula that could certainly help Beckham find some of that past success.

However, how legitimate these rumors are remains an unknown.

Often times the Green Bay Packers are a team used by agents to help boost the demand and price tag for their clients. Think back to how often Green Bay is linked to a big-name player  — quite a bit actually — but most of the time, nothing comes of it.

Also, as I alluded to above, Beckham would have to be willing to come to Green Bay on a very team-friendly deal. The Packers cannot afford to use their entire salary cap allotment of $4.6 million, which means Beckham would have to be comfortable playing in Green Bay for less money than he would likely earn elsewhere.

At this point in the season, the veteran minimum for Beckham would be $537,500, according to Ken Ingalls—so certainly within the Packers range at that amount. But again, is Beckham fine with that?

In the past, this is the type of move that Green Bay likely wouldn’t make, but as we’ve seen over the last eight months, Brian Gutekunst and Co. are operating more aggressively than what they have in the past as the team makes a Super Bowl push. Between the veteran additions and massive amount of cap charges pushed to future years, it hasn’t been business as usual at 1265 Lombardi Ave.

Teams have until 3:00 CST on Tuesday to put in a claim for Beckham and if multiple teams put in a claim, he will head to the organization with the worse record.

If he goes unclaimed, we will find out quickly how accurate those rumors are and how badly he actually wants to play in Green Bay—if at all.

UPDATE: According to Ian Rapoport, Beckham has cleared waivers and is now a free agent.