Odell Beckham Jr. still believes the Giants had ill intentions in trading him to the Browns.
Nearly five years after the stunning deal, Beckham doesn’t seem to be completely over how the end of his Giants tenure transpired.
“There’s semi a bit of me that feels like the Giants sent me off, I’ve said it before, sent me off to Cleveland to die,” the Ravens receiver said on teammate Marlon Humphrey’s “Punch Line Podcast,” referencing comments he made to Sports Illustrated in 2019.
“I could’ve went to the 49ers; I could’ve went to the Patriots; I could’ve went to teams that had a chance to be great, and that’s not what their desire was. You can’t tell me that, ‘This was the best trade package we could’ve got for you.’ Your desire was to kind of f—k me over a little bit, is how I feel. You feel like I made a fool of you or the organization, and that was never truly my intention. I’m just that competitive. I wanted to win. I always wanted to win.”
The Giants traded Beckham for Jabrill Peppers, Kevin Zeitler and first-and-third-round picks in the 2019 draft that became Dexter Lawrence and Oshane Ximines, respectively.
Beckham insists that any behavior that was interpreted by some as being a distraction was because he was “tired” of losing; the Giants went 6-10 in each of Beckham’s first two seasons; 11-5 in his third season, when they lost to the Packers in the wild-card round; 3-13 in his fourth season and 5-11 in 2018 before he was traded.
Beckham, 31, lamented that the Giants weren’t making changes to try to help Eli Manning.
“I want to see Eli go out with another Super Bowl. We’re not putting the pieces around him,” Beckham said. “I was being wasted as well.”
Beckham said he was in Paris for Drake’s tour when he got the call from general manager Dave Gettleman about the trade.
Gettleman had infamously said that they didn’t sign Beckham to trade him, but they traded him one season after signing him to a five-year, $95 million contract extension.
“It felt like a move that had a bit of spite,” Beckham said.
Beckham spent two-and-a-half drama-filled seasons with the Browns, with injuries and a lack of involvement in the offense preceding him getting waived in November 2021.
He then signed with the Rams and helped them win the Super Bowl, catching a touchdown in the game before tearing his ACL, which kept him out all of last season.
Beckham signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the Ravens and had 35 catches for 565 yards and three touchdowns in 14 games.
The top-seeded Ravens host the Texans in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.