It's been nearly two years since the blockbuster trade that ended Odell Beckham's career with the New York Giants and began his tenure with the Cleveland Browns. While the star receiver has embraced this latest chapter in his NFL career, he did at one point envision himself playing in New York for the entirety of his days in the league. When that didn't come to fruition, that admittedly left a scar.
"I never thought I would play for another team besides the Giants," Beckham told the "All Things Covered" podcast with Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden (listen below and subscribe here). "I never wanted to win a championship for anybody more than the Giants, bro. It was just such a legendary place. I was very proud to be a part of that organization."
Despite that love for the Giants organization, Beckham's tenure had a rather unceremonious end, which he pointed to the two sides simply wanting different things out of their partnership. Beckham wanted New York to put pieces around an aging Eli Manning and the Giants seemed a bit more disjointed in how they were building the roster.
"I will tell you where I ran into trouble," he said. "I felt like they never put people around Eli. I know I got a lot of [expletive] when I talked bad on Eli and I never once said a bad thing. If anything, I just speak the truth. The only thing I can look back on and be like 'Man, I regret saying that' is saying he's not the same player even though it's the truth."
He added: "It bothered me because they never built around him and we were just drafting, but we were just drafting and not building an organization and a franchise. My frustration grew because it was another 5-11 and 5-11 and we were just never good. Even the year we were 11-5, the defense was holding teams to 10 points a game and we were only good because of the defense. My frustrations grew and I felt like they weren't growing and I had wanted more."
Over Beckham's five-year tenure with the Giants, the club owned a 31-49 record and made one postseason appearance. Despite averaging 78 catches for 1,095.2 yards and over eight touchdowns a season over that stretch, Beckham was desperately looking for New York to take the leap as a legitimate contender.
"I ran into that problem when I felt they weren't growing and evolving as an organization," he said. "I wasn't winning and I hated losing that bad. I was having great seasons, but I hated losing. I hated it, I hated it, and I feel like that's where I ran into the problems.
"... That was was really it for me, bro. I used to text Eli all the time, 'Bro, you're seventh on the list for greatest of all-time. Let's [expletive] do it.' I would come to work every day and giving them everything that I had and then I felt like when I was the one pushing. ... I just felt like I was coming to an end of the road and I was pushing for something that wasn't really tangible. That was where it all just kind of went haywire for me."
Beckham's tenure with the Browns hasn't been as statistically prolific as one imagined following the trade and that has largely been due to injury. He told All Things Covered that he was dealing with a hernia injury all throughout the 2019 season and, of course, he suffered a torn ACL that cut his 2020 campaign short. As it relates to that recovery, Beckham said he is progressing faster than anticipated but intends to be smart with his recovery process so he can return to that peak form that first flashed in New York all those years ago.
