The initial, albeit technically erroneous, reports regarding Odell Beckham’s new contract pegged the deal at $95 million over five years, giving the deal an average value of $19 million. But that’s not what the deal is worth.
Yes, the new-money average of the base deal sits at $18 million per year (five years, $90-not-95 million). And that puts him north of Steelers receiver Antonio Brown’s new-money average of $17 million annually.
But Camp Beckham eschewed the new-money analysis when arguing that the Giants had offered Beckham less than the $16 million per year obtained on the open market by Chiefs receiver Sammy Watkins, the highest paid player at the position for deals analyzed from the moment of signing. As to Beckham, who already was due to make $8.459 million in 2018, he didn’t sign a five-year, $90 million deal that gets stapled onto the back of his current contract but a new deal that covers six years and has a base value of $98.459 million.
That’s an average from the moment signing of $16.4 million per year. And it makes him the highest paid receiver, by $400,000 per year. And that’s hardly the kind of bump over the prior high-water mark that a supposedly “transcendent” player should have gotten.
So why did Beckham take that instead of $20 million per year or more at signing? Because Beckham wisely realized that the bird in the hand had grown more than fat enough to justify not waiting for the proverbial two in the bush. With the Giants reportedly guaranteeing $41 million at signing and providing an injury guarantee of $65 million, it would have been foolish for Beckham to say no.
Ultimately, that’s how to get these deals done, from the team’s perspective. What the player wants is roughly as relevant as Spaulding’s laundry list of desire foodstuffs before starting the back nine at Bushwood. What the player will or won’t refuse is what really matters. Beckham wouldn’t, and couldn’t, refuse the offer that the Giants made, even if it only (only?) pays him $16.4 million per year over six years, committing him to the team until he’s on the brink of 32.
