Odell Beckham Jr. Potential Landing Spots

Odell Beckham Jr. is set to begin making visits to teams in early December as his recovery from a torn ACL in Super Bowl LVI is nearing completion. There have been five teams linked to him in the most recent reports.  Let’s take a look at the fantasy impact Beckham would have on each of these teams and which ones make the most sense.

Buffalo Bills

The Bills have been rumored as a top landing spot for Beckham since the offseason. The match seems perfect, too. Buffalo has an MVP-caliber quarterback orchestrating a high-powered offense. For fantasy football purposes, however, this seems like a move that’s better for Buffalo’s Super Bowl odds than your fantasy championship chances.

Last season, Beckham joined a similarly high-powered offense with an undisputed alpha at wide receiver in Cooper Kupp. Kupp had a historically productive season and Beckham slid in comfortably as a #2. Beckham returned fringe-WR2 value through the fantasy playoffs last year, finishing as WR102 (ugh!), WR28, and WR23 (weeks 15, 16, 17) in Half-PPR scoring. 

If Beckham were to join Buffalo, he’d once again be behind an alpha wide receiver in Stefon Diggs, but he would also be competing for targets with the capable Gabe Davis and Isaiah McKenzie. It would be a nightmare for opposing defenses to prepare for, but it would put a ceiling on Beckham’s production and further muddy the consistency for Davis and McKenzie.

New York Giants

The surprisingly strong start for the New York Football Giants has made a reunion with Beckham a real possibility. A return to New York would be fascinating and poetic, but I’m not so sure it would be great for fantasy football.

The opportunity share would certainly be there for Beckham, with Darius Slayton being the only receiver able to stay healthy and earn any sort of production. The problem with the Giants’ offense for Beckham would be the combination of Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley. 

Barkley’s return to his Offensive Rookie of the Year form coupled with Jones’ lack of ability to elevate the passing attack has forced this team to go extremely run-heavy. The Giants are attempting the fourth-fewest passing attempts per game in the NFL. If Beckham returns to the Meadowlands, he’ll have a large piece of an underwhelming pie.

Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has talked quite a bit about making this possibility a reality. If he does wrangle Beckham to Dallas, the fit for fantasy purposes would be pretty solid. The Cowboys’ offense is in the top third of the league in points per game and Dak Prescott is a capable quarterback who piloted Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb to top-27 fantasy finishes last season. With Cooper and his 18.8% target share leaving Dallas during the offseason and no significant additions being made to the roster, Beckham would have a sizable opportunity available to him.

A problem would be that Prescott may not be able to support two wide receivers in the same game consistently. In 2021, Lamb and Cooper were both top-24 WR in Half-PPR scoring only two times. To put that in perspective, last season Beckham and Cooper Kupp had three weeks where both were top-24 wide receivers in only eight games together. Additionally, the Cowboys have shifted to a less pass-heavy offense compared to last year.

Prescott has only attempted more than 30 passes once in his four games this season, compared to attempting less than 30 passes only three times all of last season. Furthermore, if Jerry Jones does put a star on Beckham’s helmet, Beckham will potentially have a couple of WR1 finishes. However, fantasy managers will be hard-pressed to know when they can rely on him to come through.

Kansas City Chiefs

Were Beckham to sign with Kansas City, he’d be matched with arguably the best player in football (Patrick Mahomes) and one of the best offensive minds in the game (Andy Reid) on the highest-scoring team in football. Travis Kelce currently owns the aerial attack of Kansas City, but Mahomes is more than good enough to support a WR1 alongside him as he did with Tyreek Hill over the last few years. 

Hill had a 25% target share last year and no one has stepped up and demanded those targets in his absence. In a high-octane offense paired with Mahomes, if Beckham were to walk into even a 15% target share, he could be a solid top-20 wide receiver through the home stretch of the season.

Baltimore Ravens

Beckham’s fantasy match with Baltimore seemed excellent during the offseason and the puzzle pieces seemed to slide together even better with the unfortunate injury to Rashod Bateman. The Ravens’ offense is not pass-heavy, but Lamar Jackson can be effective enough through the air for fantasy purposes. Last season, he gave Mark Andrews enough volume to be the overall TE1 and also pushed Marquise Brown to WR23. 

 Andrews has had to soldier through some injuries which have limited his effectiveness. However, he’s seen his overall target share increase to 29.3% from last year’s position-leading 26.6%. This increase has to be credited to the complete lack of proven weapons left standing in Baltimore. Brown and his 26.7% target share from last year was traded to Arizona. The Ravens expected those vacated targets to be replaced with internal options like Bateman and also-rans like Demarcus Robinson and Desean Jackson.

Beckham would instantly slot in at the top of the wide receiver depth chart but would benefit from the threat of Andrews as the true first option in the passing attack. I could see him having a solid WR3 floor every week with WR1 upside during the fantasy playoffs.

No matter where Beckham ends up signing, he absolutely should be rostered in all fantasy leagues. Right now, he’s only owned in 46% of Yahoo leagues and 34% of ESPN leagues. Adding him before he signs with a team will remove the FAAB premium he will cost once signed. Even if he ends up in an underwhelming destination, he’s still going to be an option for a weekly flex play throughout the fantasy playoffs. However, that can’t be said about many players still out there on the waiver wire.

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