He left something behind.
It was one of the helmets he wore in his first five years with the Giants, still there, at the team facility, unused since the 2018 season.
Odell Beckham Jr. reunited with that helmet this week.
“It had dust on it,’’ he said.
Beckham, in some ways, has dust on him as well. He is back where he achieved stardom, but that was a long time ago. He is 33 years old now and trying to get through this spring and on into the summer and make the roster, no longer a marquee wide receiver but perhaps a wiser and more appreciative one.
There are no financial ramifications here. Beckham signed a one-year deal for the veteran minimum of $1.3 million. Not a penny of it is guaranteed. It is about finishing where he started and trying to squeeze just a bit more out of his football career.
This is a conversation he had with the new Giants head coach, John Harbaugh.
“I think that was one of his fears,’’ Beckham said Wednesday. “He was like, ‘I love you so much, I’ve got so much respect for you. I don’t want to bring you here and have to cut you,’ or whatever.
“I’m like, ‘Listen, I’m going out on my sword either way it goes. If that’s what you’ve got to do, you see I’m not best or fit, then by all means I’m good with it, I can live with it. I can’t live with sitting at home not doing it, you know?’ I just couldn’t do it.
“Like I said, it’s not who I am, so … I’m just here to enjoy the moment, work hard, we’ll see what happens.’’
What happens with Beckham is anyone’s guess.
He last played in an NFL game Dec. 8, 2024, when he was finishing up a nine-catch season with the Dolphins. In the past four years, he has appeared in just 23 games, missing the entire 2022 season rehabbing a torn ACL and missing the entire 2025 season after going unsigned. If he had been picked up, he would have had to serve a six-game suspension for violating the league’s policy on performance enhancing drugs.
With this signing, Beckham six times has moved from one team to another. Since he was traded by the Giants after the 2018 season, he has been with the Browns, Rams, Ravens, Dolphins and now back with the Giants. This offseason, all 32 teams had the opportunity to bring him in for a look-see. Only the Giants made the call.
The Giants worked Beckham out April 20 but did not sign him. When Gunner Olszewski tore his Achilles tendon in practice, there was a need to add at least one receiver. Beckham was invited back for a tryout Monday and was signed, along with two other veteran receivers, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Braxton Berrios.
Harbaugh said Beckham looked better at the second workout than he did the first. Beckham had been working hard in Arizona and it showed.
“We talked about this, he would tell you this,’’ said Harbaugh, who has called Beckham one of his favorite players based on their 2023 season together with the Ravens. “ ‘You can’t be just OK. You’re Odell Beckham. You got to be a guy capable that we can see would have a chance to make a difference in NFL games. You have to be that kind of player.’
“He understood that. So get to work. We’re going to find out over the course of the next week and training camp if that’s going to be something he’s going to be able to do for the team. If he can, great. If he can’t, then that’s OK, too. But he’ll have taken his shot.’’
Beckham showed some of his old stuff in his second practice back with the Giants. Wearing No. 3, he ran a deep route, going one-on-one with cornerback Deonte Banks. Beckham got a step on the defender but Jameis Winston’s lob hung up a bit and Banks was there to bat the ball away. Beckham and Banks both tumbled to the grass.
After that, there were shorter routes for Beckham. Lined up in the slot, he found a soft spot in the zone and hauled in a toss from Winston. Once, Beckham went over the middle to try for a pass from Brandon Allen and slammed into safety Raheem Layne. Beckham gave a “my bad’’ gesture to Layne.
Beckham, appearing relaxed and at ease, said it was “a pretty surreal feeling’’ to be back at the Giants facility, on the practice fields, looking across the parking lot at MetLife Stadium. He said he spent last season with his 4-year old son, Zydn, attempting to “re-prioritize what was important to me.’’
He decided he needed to get back in the game, if he could find a team that wanted him. Returning to the Giants — he was their 2014 first-round pick — was his goal.
“Just the way that I had to walk away, it was just unsettling in my soul, in my spirit,’’ Beckham said. “It’s not who I am. I’ve never surrendered or quit or felt like I’ve given up on myself or anything. It just wasn’t sitting with me well.’’
Beckham several times said he never wanted to leave the Giants. Getting back with John Mara, the Giants co-owner, “means a lot’’ to him.
“This family brought me in, they gave me my first opportunity,’’ Beckham said. “Something I’ll forever be grateful for. So many amazing memories. My life was here, I never thought I’d be anywhere else.’’
Beckham said he is as fast, or faster than he ever was. He described quarterback Jaxson Dart as “very good’’ who has “an arm on him’’ and “obviously he’s got a lot of swag.’’ He believes he can be an asset to Malik Nabers, who like Beckham played as LSU. Nabers is coming back from ACL surgery, a procedure Beckham endured twice in his NFL career.
“Obviously, we know what kind of player he is,’’ Beckham said. “Just however I can help him, anybody else, trust me, I know all the things to do, and I know the things not to do.’’
This figures to be his final shot.
“I look at it like this,’’ he said. “God has given me one more opportunity to play. Whatever I do with that is that. I’m not saying this is my only year and I’m not saying that I’ve got five more for you. I’m just looking at it like this is my opportunity now. We’ll see where it goes from there.’’
