5 Intriguing Trade Destinations for Odell Beckham Jr.

Odell Beckham Jr. has had about as tumultuous of an offseason as one can have without running afoul of the law. It crested when he appeared in a leaked video where a woman was lining up white powder, and Giants owner John Mara has said he’s had enough discussions with Beckham about his behavior. By saying no one is “untouchable,” Mara intimated that the star receiver is on the trade block, for the right price at least.

Now there are murky questions about what Beckham’s trade value even is, and if the Giants are so tired of him that they’d move him without getting a lot in return. And, according to Ian Rapoport, Beckham does not intend to take the field this season without a contract extension. It’s presumable he’d buckle on that at some point when he starts missing checks, but it makes the situation even more murky. Nevertheless, here are some teams that we could see trading for Beckham.

1. Cincinnati Bengals – While Jerry Jones gets all the credit/blame for taking on reclamation projects, Mike Brown in Cincinnati does so just as much if not more. They brought in Terrell Owens in 2010, after he’d already been on four other teams. Beckham and AJ Green lined up on opposite sides would be a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses.

2. Houston Texans – Just like AJ Green and Odell Beckham Jr. would be an insane wide receiver duo, so would Beckham and DeAndre Hopkins. This would seem to be a personality clash with owner Bob McNair, who now that Jerry Richardson is gone has taken up the mantle of being the most hard-line traditionalist, but can you imagine an offense where a healthy Deshaun Watson has Hopkins and Beckham at his disposal?

3. Chicago Bears – This is another situation where its hard to see the owners — the notoriously cheap McCaskey family — breaking the bank to give Beckham a contract extension, but the Bears have been searching for a bona fide receiver for essentially my whole lifetime. With the addition of Allen Robinson this offseason, Mitchell Trubisky would have a pretty nice tandem to throw to if the Bears landed Beckham.

4. New Orleans Saints – Odell Beckham Jr. returning to his hometown just in time for Drew Brees to make one last run would be a fun story. An offense with weapons including Beckham, Alvin Kamara, and Michael Thomas would be downright scary. The Saints are going to have to rebuild for a couple years when Brees is gone and may not want to bind themselves with a long-term Beckham deal, but just imagine him in that offense this season…

5. Washington – It would be a little weird for the Giants to trade Beckham within the division because they’d have to see him twice a year and would really rue their mistake if he performed well for them, but if they believe he’s such a cancer that they need to offload him right away, why not foist him on a rival? Washington signed DeSean Jackson after he was released by the Eagles; Beckham is a larger talent and it’s debatable whether he’s even a bigger headache than Jackson was purported to be at the time (remember how the Eagles leaked that they were concerned about gang ties?). Daniel Snyder likes to make offseason splashes. I wouldn’t rule this out.

Graphic by Michael Shamburger