It’s easy for Phil Simms to be generous, because it isn’t his money. But the former Giants quarterback was clear in his advice to his former team in reference to contract talks with wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., saying: “Pay that man his money.”
“He is one of the best weapons on offense I’ve seen in the NFL in a long time,” Simms told Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. “Antonio Brown is great, but he’s a different type of player. So is Julio Jones. I just look at Odell Beckham Jr. and, man, I don’t know what to say.”
Of course, the Giants have some concerns, beginning with the broken ankle which cost him 12 games last year. But Simms said any perceived character issues were overblown, and that the Giants he’s talked to express no concerns with Beckham’s behavior.
“It’s always a gamble,” Simms said. “You want to win, you got to gamble. Nobody knows him better than they do. I’ve never heard a teammate or run into any of his teammates who ever tell me anything bad about him. He makes the Giants really relevant. He’s one of the big names in the NFL.
“Old-timers and writers look at his antics and this and all that. We had a guy who had some antics, too. We put up with him, and it worked out pretty well.”
Of course, Simms played with a felon who happened to be very good at football (Lawrence Taylor), and nothing Beckham has ever done approaches that level, so everything’s relative when it comes to distractions. And Simms said Beckham’s ability to not only make plays but affect game plans makes him unique.
“When you talk about Odell, you can say, ‘They double cover him,’ but you really can’t make people understand what it really means and how it makes life easy for calling plays and designing plays,’’ Simms said. “In this day and age there’s so many formations and so many other things, they want to get Odell Beckham Jr. the ball, they’re gonna find a way to get him the ball. I don’t care what the defense does. . . .
“You need zero distractions. You want him on your team, you know what he is and you know you’re all-in this year. All right, so go all-in. You got to go all-in and that means you got to get Odell Beckham Jr. signed and not make it a big part of the whole offseason story on every TV show I have to watch. So get it over with.’’
Beckham said he didn’t plan to hold out of training camp, but there are no guarantees when he’ll show up based on contract talks.
