Brandon Marshall on Odell Beckham critics: Careful, you're playing with fire

The Jets receiver knows what it's like to be the target of criticism and he has Beckham's back

Odell Beckham Jr. has gone from media darling and fan favorite to enigma. The third-year Giants' wide receiver is off to slow start to the season and perhaps that has something to do with the on-field antics that invariably end in unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties.

Former Giants coach Tom Coughlin has called Beckham a "distraction," which is pretty much what Beckham's current coach, Ben McAdoo, said last month. Even Eli Manning, who rarely says anything noteworthy, let alone controversial, admits that Beckham brought the scrutiny on himself.

But Jets wideout Brandon Marshall, who fought personal demons early in his career in Denver, Miami and Chicago, issued a warning Wednesday to those in the organization calling out Beckham.

"Those guys over there need to be really careful," Marshall told the New York Daily News. "They don't need to be speaking out on their teammate. They need to keep that in-house, because they can lose him. They need to rally behind him and give him the support he needs and handle that stuff in-house, whether good or bad. Because whether they like it or not, he's the best player on that team."

"Monday Night Football" analyst and former NFL coach Jon Gruden went so far as to suggest that Beckham should be benched until can get his head straight. Marshall's not a fan of this idea, either.

"That's not good business," he said. "He's the type of guy that he can play with anger; he can play with rage. Like, that's not a distraction for him. He doesn't need a sports psychologist for that, because he's still going to make that magnificent one-hand catch. The problem is, it may be a distraction to his teammates," Marshall said. "Guys don't (want to) answer the same question every single week. But as far as him personally needing help? He doesn't need help. He's still going to produce and be the beast that he is. But when your teammates have to answer that question over and over again, that's when it becomes a problem."

For us, benching Beckham is a non-starter. Is he a distraction? Yeah, probably. But so were Randy Moss and Terrell Owens. They're also future Hall of Famers who never made their teams better by standing on the sidelines. Put another way: Beckham's antics aren't helping an already-struggling Giants' offense, but he's also not its biggest problem. The offense line is a mess, the running game isn't much better, and through the first month of the season, Manning has is replacement-level (according to Football Outsiders, he ranks 16th among all quarterbacks, just behind Trevor Siemian).

"I think that [Beckham] can channel it a bit better," Marshall continued. "But there's a thin line, like, he has to be himself. Monday night, he was not himself. That's not good for them. That's not good for them -- coach coming out saying, 'Oh, this, he needs to do' -- nah, that's the wrong way. You're playing with fire there."