Odell Beckham Jr.’s release was not a grand conspiracy.
Head coach John Harbaugh made it clear that the reason Beckham’s celebrated second stint with the Giants was cut short after just three games had nothing to do with the fans chanting his name last game as a way of begging him onto the field, or the outsized media attention he draws as a No. 4 receiver playing 20 snaps (zero catches on one target).
“It’s what’s best for the team — and if you think it’s anything else then you don’t know me and you don’t know what we are doing here,” Harbaugh said after Wednesday’s practice. “(His roster spot) is not doing enough for our offense, not doing enough for our team. So we need to make a change. He’s not thrilled with it, either. He wants to play.
“There’s no deep conversation, no conspiracy theory. We’re trying to win games. Any speculation of that is just noise. It’s the last thing I care about. I’m not hiding anything. It’s not Watergate.”
Harbaugh delivered the “difficult” news to Beckham on Tuesday and wished him well as he searches for an offense that better fits his revival. Beckham is said to have been gracious in his departure.
“We just weren’t getting enough,” Harbaugh said. “It just wasn’t working for us. I told him, ‘I wanted to get him on the field more.’ For whatever reason, we weren’t able to do it. Put it on us.”
The Giants replaced Beckham with receivers Braxton Berrios (who maxed out his three practice-squad elevations) and Charlie Jones. Both have return ability.
Why didn’t Beckham — who is not returning to the practice squad — get more opportunities when the Giants haven’t scored a touchdown in two games?
Harbaugh said there are “a lot of layers” and subtleties to playing time as coaches put together game plans and call plays that he does not feel obliged to share publicly. He spoke last week about hoping the opportunities would come for Beckham against the Titans, but it didn’t work out that way and it was “nothing he did.”
“It’s not like a logic high school debate,” Harbaugh said. “We didn’t think it would make us better, or we would have had him on the field. That’s really the end of the conversation.”
Beckham often made it clear that he only wanted to play for the Giants to complete a full-circle journey with the franchise where he became an icon from 2014-18. But he left Harbaugh with the impression that he could resurface somewhere else after coming back from missing all last season.
The 49ers are a logical destination.
Beckham’s iconic No. 13 jersey now belongs to third-string quarterback Jake Haener.
“I hope he lands somewhere, gets a shot,” Harbaugh said. “I think he’s determined to. Probably will be a better situation for him. It just wasn’t working here. That’s all that needs to be said.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
