NFL insider gives update on Odell Beckham Jr injury timeline, free agency

Teams wanting to sign Odell Beckham this offseason have to take his ACL injury into account. That includes the Los Angeles Rams, who NFL reporter Ian Rapoport said on Thursday have interest in re-signing the ninth-year receiver for another season.

Rapoport offered a timeline for Beckham’s recovery and revealed when he might be available for game action.

“Before he tore his ACL in the Super Bowl, he certainly looked like he would have been in the conversation for Super Bowl MVP,” the NFL reporter said. “That’s how well he was clicking. He had successful surgery and the Rams do want him back. There is mutual interest there, but his timeline makes it a little bit complicated. ACLs are generally six to nine months (to recover). It sounds like Odell is a little bit more toward the later end of that. I am told the expectation is for him to be ready and able to play by the beginning of November. That means for a team that signs him — potentially the Los Angeles Rams — he would go on the PUP list and would practice three weeks before and end up playing in November, which is not a great sign. But the other part of it is that he arrived late for the Rams (this past season) and was a huge, huge contributor down the stretch.”

Beckham joined the Rams this past season after the Cleveland Browns waived him six games into the year. He played eight regular season games for Los Angeles, compiling 27 catches for 305 yards and five touchdowns. The LSU product was also a key part of their postseason run and caught the first touchdown of Super Bowl 56. He finished the game with two catches for 52 yards despite exiting in the first half.

The injury that Odell Beckham suffered during the Super Bowl was far from the first of his career. The receiver recorded 1,000-yard receiving season in five of his first six years in the league, and the only season he didn’t was in 2017 when he played just four games after fracturing his ankle. He again tore his ACL in 2020 after playing in just seven games.

Given his past struggles to stay on the field, some teams could be wary to bring him on, especially if he can’t play for most of the season. But there is also clearly potential for a high reward, as we saw with the Rams this past year. There will surely be at least one Super Bowl contender willing to take a chance on the talented receiver, it simply seems to be a matter of who.