If Ben McAdoo really believes that Odell Beckham is turning into a distraction for the Giants, then Jon Gruden has some advice for the Giants coach: Put Beckham on the bench.
The former Buccaneers coach and current ESPN announcer said on Wednesday that the Giants need to punish Beckham by taking away his starting job. Gruden's biggest problem with Beckham isn't even his antics, it's the fact that the Giants receiver keeps dropping passes.
"You can tolerate more with some players than others, obviously, he's very talented, but like I said, he's dropping passes," Gruden said during an interview with ESPN's Mike and Mike. "I've taken guys out of the game for that. I think that's what needs to be done. Sit him down for a while. I know he's a great player, but I've taken guys down for dropping passes, lining up wrong, missing an audible, blowing an assignment, committing penalties, not being reliable. He needs to take a breath, I think, and refocus himself."
Gruden then rattled off a laundry list of reasons why putting Beckham on the bench makes sense.
"I don't think this is as difficult as maybe some people ... he's had some problems. I think he's been fined five times. I think he's been suspended by the league already. He's not playing great football," Gruden said. "He's got no touchdowns. Zero. And I've seen him drop passes at the end of the game against New Orleans, Washington, he dropped one the other night. I thought he quit on a route that the ball was intercepted on."
The Super Bowl-winning coach is also tired of watching Beckham make flashy catches.
"I don't want to see anymore one-handed catches, honestly," Gruden said. "He's not playing up to his standards. You know, how much are you gonna tolerate? I think that's the question that Ben McAdoo, the head coach of the Giants, is faced with."
If Tom Coughlin was still in charge in New York, there's a chance that Beckham would've been benched by now. During an interview CBS Sports Network's "We Need to Talk," Coughlin said that it's become pretty clear that Beckham is now a distraction.
If McAdoo does decide to bench Beckham, don't look for it to happen this week. The Giants receiver is going up against a Packers defense that's already surrendered over 180 yards receiving to two different receivers this year (Stefon Diggs, Marvin Jones).
A big game for Beckham on Sunday night would probably go along toward silencing critics. It would probably also bring the "fun" back to football for Beckham.
The wide receiver said this week that he's not having fun anymore, which is an interesting quote because back in April, he said he'd quit football if he stopped having fun.
