Less than four months from the start of the 2024 regular season, Dolphins receiver Odell Beckham Jr. still hasn’t gotten on the field with his new team. The veteran remains on the Physically Unable to Perform list, three weeks into camp.
What is coach Mike McDaniel’s level of concern about Beckham not practicing?
“I wouldn’t have a level of concern,” McDaniel told reporters on Wednesday. “I think as the process goes, you have to put one foot in front of the other and what you don’t want, and what I know Odell doesn’t want, is getting on the grass and then leaving it. So just preparing people to be the version of themselves where they can play confident and convicted. All that is done where there is adversity — I don’t think Odell sees it like that or I don’t think the position room sees it like that because there’s been some opportunities to play football. We have some young guys that have a lot of talent, that need to battle some stuff out to be able to win an NFL job.
“That’s the biggest thing for the Dolphins team and really that position group. Odell has — his teammates know that he’s working hard because he shows them every day as he gets back on the field where he knows — he didn’t sign up for football to be in meetings. Even though my meetings are super entertaining, I don’t think that was the case. So he’s working his way back to be on the field which is what everyone wants.”
It’s still not clear what’s keeping Beckham off the field. There’s no obligation at this point of the calendar to disclose injury information. As to Beckham, the Dolphins haven’t done it.
In two weeks, they’ll have to decide whether to put him on the active roster to start the season or to keep him on the PUP list to begin the 2024 campaign.