When Odell Beckham was cut loose by the Cleveland Browns and cleared waivers, the Green Bay Packers were reportedly his top landing spot. While he eventually decided to join the Los Angeles Rams, Beckham’s good friend, Aaron Rodgers, said on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday that there was interest from the Packers, and that the two had some good conversations leading up to his decision. According to Rodgers, Beckham’s choice ultimately came down to “fit.”
Beckham played his first game with the Rams on Monday night, and it was a flop. Not only did the Rams get blown out by the San Francisco 49ers, 31-10, but Beckham wasn’t a major part of the offense, as he caught two of three targets for just 18 yards.
While the former Pro Bowl wideout didn’t have much time to prepare for his first game as a Ram, some are questioning his fit in L.A. and how he will affect the offense. Rodgers said he would “definitely reserve judgement” when it comes to Beckham’s first game with his new team.
“I wouldn’t judge one performance,” said Rodgers. “He obviously had some plays that he felt good about, but he wasn’t playing most of the fourth quarter when they were in no huddle stuff. So obviously he has some ways to go learn the offense, and you know, it’s a similar offense to what we run. It’s not one that I feel like you can really jump in at certain positions and just know it right away. There’s four or five teams that run it but it’s not all over the league; it has different terminology and signals and splits and alignments. So I would definitely reserve judgement on writing off OBJ. I think he’s got a lot of really productive years left in his career.”
While it’s obviously not fair to judge Beckham off of a single game, one has to wonder how his presence in the offense will affect that side of the ball in general. On Beckham’s first drive as a Ram, Matthew Stafford threw an interception trying to target his new wideout deep down the field. It certainly appeared to be a forced throw, which is probably not what Sean McVay wanted.
As for Beckham, he said that the Rams just got outplayed Monday night. He was excited for the moment, but L.A. just got whooped.
“I was excited and I felt like I was ready for the moment. … It just wasn’t our night,” said Beckham. “There’s no way around it, it just wasn’t our night, in all three phases of the game. They ran the ball well, they stopped us on offense and they just beat us.”
