We don’t know what Odell Beckham’s plans are for Thanksgiving or for returning to the NFL. But if what players from two NFC East rivals are to be believed, Beckham might have keen interest in Thursday’s middle game.
The teams that will be playing in that one -- New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys -- are among those still trying to sign the free-agent Beckham, who has spent the year rehabbing from the torn ACL he suffered in Super Bowl LVI as a member of the Los Angeles Rams.
Whether they’re the top two contenders for Beckham’s services is another discussion. But both Cowboys and Giants players are acting as if their team is likely to land him, and they’re treating their upcoming showdown as the Beckham Bowl.
“I don’t think it would hurt!” injured Giants receiver Sterling Shepard told the New York Daily News of a potential OBJ return to New York.
Sterling and Beckham were teammates with the Giants from 2016 to 2018. They speak “every day,” Shepard said, adding that Beckham would “love” to join the Giants, although he did add that he and Beckham don’t talk about his pending decision “too much.”
Still, Shepard believes Thursday matters -- for the Giants and for their chances of bringing Beckham home.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think it would hurt,” Shepard said. “We’d be coming off a pretty big win, a big one for us. Definitely wouldn’t hurt. I can say it.”
The problem? The Cowboys are talking confidently as if they can land OBJ, too.
“He knows how much I want him here, and a lot of these guys in this locker room I’ve seen have reached out on their own in different ways to (make) sure that he understands that this is a team that he can help,” Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott said. “And we want him to come help.”
But how does Beckham feel? Prescott was asked.
“Mutual, honestly, mutual,” he said.
Recruiting, it seems, isn’t just a college-sports thing this time of year.
"Right now, I guess it's who can recruit better," Prescott said. "And, yeah, I don't know necessarily about what he's looking for when it comes to the numbers and long term and all that. But I know that we want him here, and hope it all works out."
According to NFL Network Insiders Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport, Beckham is expected to visit the Giants and Cowboys as he prepares to sign. Other teams mentioned as possible landing spots include the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. Perhaps the winner of Thursday’s game will have an edge when Beckham eventually makes it to their city.