After much negotiation, the Ravens have finally agreed to sign an anticipated $150 million Pro Bowl super phenomenal player from…
It makes sense that Lamar Jackson was not interested in watching the Super Bowl. Last week, following his second career NFL Most Valuable Player Award win in Las Vegas, he told NFL Network’s Taylor Bisciotti that the Ravens’ AFC championship game loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was still “too raw.”
Naturally, Odell Beckham Jr. was a different story. Numerous sources state that the wide receiver for the Ravens and Kim Kardashian were spotted over the weekend on the strip and at Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin’s Super Bowl party at The Cosmopolitan on Saturday.
The question of whether 31-year-old Beckham and 43-year-old Kardashian will date or not will continue to feed the tabloids for the foreseeable future. Though there are difficulties involved, it appears easier to predict whether Jackson and the most iconic sports character in franchise history will be reunited.
Because Beckham’s one-year, $15 million contract was revised and significant void years were eliminated, he is not officially one of the team’s more than 20 upcoming unrestricted free agents.
According to Russell Street Report, this modification permits Baltimore to employ a release after June 1 in the event that an extension is not achieved by March 14. By doing this, the dead money in the transaction would not be hit all at once in 2024 but rather be spread out over this year and the following, totaling $2.767 million for this year and $8.301 million for 2025.
However, considering that the Ravens currently have just over $7.3 million in cap space, according to Over The Cap—a figure that is expected to increase to approximately $8.8 million when the salary cap for the league is estimated to be around $245 million for the 2024 season—the only practical way for Beckham to return with such a sizable guarantee for 2025 would be to modify his contract.
Does he want to return, and should the Ravens bring him back? These inquiries don’t always have to be answered in the negative.
First, let’s address the latter.
“I’ve relished every moment, regardless of the political ramifications,” Beckham remarked following Baltimore’s 17-10 defeat to the Chiefs. “I always talk about how I fell in love with football again when I went to see the Los Angeles Rams, and being here…” Coach Harbs, John Harbaugh, Steve Bisciotti, the owner, Eric DeCosta, the general manager of EDC,… It was homey here. I had an incredible feeling about it.
Overall, both on and off the field, his performance was not stellar, despite many shining moments.
After sustaining his second career ACL tear in Super Bowl 56 in February 2022, Beckham had a meager 35 receptions for 565 yards and three touchdowns in his first season back. Despite missing two games early in the season due to an ankle ailment and one late in the season to prepare for the postseason, that was the lowest performance of any largely healthy season in his career.
Despite managing a career-high 16.1 yards per grab, Beckham’s average of just 4.4 targets and 2.5 catches per game is, at best, supplementary. Additionally, he showed flashes, albeit infrequently, against the Cincinnati Bengals the following week, the Rams, the Miami Dolphins, and the Cleveland Browns, with a 40-yard touchdown catch, 116 yards on four catches, and a touchdown against the latter.
His influence extended well beyond Sundays.
When Beckham showed up in Baltimore in April, the team wasn’t sure whether he could even compete and he was mostly there to persuade Jackson to sign a long-term contract. Fans who, aside from Jackson, had long yearned for a player of that caliber welcomed Beckham with daily screams of “OBJ! OBJ!” when he arrived for training camp. Being a popular sage among colleagues of all ages, Beckham was parked next to Zay Flowers in the locker room, sharing his ten years of experience with the rookie receiver.
Additionally, Beckham, or possibly experienced upcoming free agent Nelson Agholor, would be a welcome addition to return—at the proper price—with just Flowers and Rashod Bateman among the Ravens’ top four wide receivers signed for the upcoming year.
Rankings of the Ravens free agents: Which important players could be back in 2024?
At the team’s season-ending news conference, DeCosta responded, “I don’t know,” when asked if the wide receiver corps would see a significant change similar to what happened last season. “I adore the men who will be returning.
“We’ll talk to guys and see if we can get guys back, but right now I feel like we’re doing really well.”
Considering that Beckham’s salary this past season ranked 19th among receivers, it seems improbable that any team would shell out an additional $15 million to get him back.
Even yet, there is a chance that the Ravens and Beckham may work out a new contract that keeps the salary cap ramifications in check. This is crucial because they have a full draft class to sign in addition to other, more expensive free agents like defensive lineman Justin Madubuike on their roster. What the free market determines may potentially have an impact on his return.
Additionally, Beckham claimed he will “take a step back, evaluate the future, and just go from there,” so that will determine what happens.
Even though he previously won a Super Bowl ring with the Rams two years ago, he doesn’t seem like a man who is done footballing.
“I know that I can still play football and that I still have [expletive] in the tank,” Beckham declared.
