Jacksonville Jaguars in position not to need WR Odell Beckham Jr

Wide receiver is currently one of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ biggest strengths due to the presence of Calvin Ridley, Christian Kirk, and Zay Jones. But that wasn’t always the case. As recently as last year, the position was the team’s biggest need, and targeting Amari Cooper via trade or arranging a reunion with Allen Robinson didn’t seem unreasonable. Going after Odell Beckham Jr. also made sense at the time but not anymore.

Beckham just held a workout for 12 teams after spending the 2022 season away from football while recovering from an ACL tear he sustained in Super Bowl 56. The clubs that showed up to watch the Pro Bowl wide receiver were the Carolina Panthers, the New York Giants, the New England Patriots, the Los Angeles Rams, the Arizona Cardinals, the San Franciso 49ers, the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Minnesota Vikings, the Minnesota Browns, and the Baltimore Ravens.

Not long after the workout, Mike Florio of Pro Football Focus reported that Beckham was looking for an annual salary of $20 million. Although players are worth whatever teams are willing to pay them, that’s an absurd amount when you take into account that injuries have limited him to just 21 games since 2020.

The truth is that Beckham might not be able to get the kind of contract he wants and might need to settle on a one-year, prove-it deal. Maybe he’s still the receiver that made electrifying players early in his career and was key in the Rams’ Super Bowl run in 2022. But he has to prove it before clubs hand him a bag of cash.

The Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver corps is in great shape

The Jaguars signed Christian Kirk and Zay Jones to top-market contracts last offseason and they both went on to post career numbers. On top of that, general manager Trent Baalke acquired Calvin Ridley from the Atlanta Falcons before the trade deadline.

Kirk signed a four-year contract that pays him an average of $18 million per year and he caught 84 passes for 1,108 yards with eight touchdowns last season. Meanwhile, Jones’ deal is worth an average of $8 million per year and he hauled in 82 receptions for 823 yards with five touchdowns.

Ridley was serving an indefinite suspension for betting on football games and recently revealed that he played the 2021 season on a broken foot. He’s set to count $11.116 million in 2023. That’s significantly less than what Beckham wants and if Ridley can play the way he did in 2020, when he had 90 catches for 1,374 yards and nine touchdowns, the Jaguars won’t mind losing the draft picks they gave to the Falcons in the trade.

Beckham might still have some gas left in the tank and there are several teams that could use his help but the Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t one of them. They have a well-rounded receiving corps, which is why they didn’t attend his workout. Instead, they’re getting ready for free agency and deciding what’s the best way to address their position needs.