NFL insider gives take on the type of contract the Chiefs could give Odell Beckham Jr
The rumors connecting the Kansas City Chiefs to free agent wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr are starting to heat up. Beckham is reportedly hoping to return to the field in mid-November (he's recovering from the torn ACL he suffered in the Los Angeles Rams' win in Super Bowl LVI). With that time frame in mind, […]
The rumors connecting the Kansas City Chiefs to free agent wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr are starting to heat up.
Beckham is reportedly hoping to return to the field in mid-November (he's recovering from the torn ACL he suffered in the Los Angeles Rams' win in Super Bowl LVI). With that time frame in mind, OBJ is starting to look for a deal with a team.
And the Chiefs are a team that's been connected to OBJ via various reports.
Kansas City doesn't have a ton of cap room — which is likely why they restructured Travis Kelce's contract this week — but they can still make a deal with Beckham work.
Pro Football Network's Dallas Robinson broke down what a contract for Beckham could look like for the Chiefs.
The Chiefs would likely aim to give Beckham something close to what he got from the Rams last November: a one-year pact worth up to $4.5 million.
“Up to” is the operative phrase there. Los Angeles handed OBJ a $500K signing bonus and $750K for the remainder of the season. The other $3 million was comprised of team-based incentives, which Beckham eventually cashed in on when the Rams won the Super Bowl.
Kansas City could toy with Beckham’s cap charge by instituting “not likely to be earned” team-level incentives. In the NFL, incentive thresholds are based on what occurred the prior season. If the Chiefs gave OBJ incentives for KC making or winning the Super Bowl — neither of which they did last year — those incentives would be considered “not likely to be earned.”
That’s important because those types of incentives wouldn’t count on the Chiefs’ 2022 salary cap. If KC ended up winning the Lombardi Trophy and Beckham cashed in, the Chiefs wouldn’t take a salary cap debit until next season.
Robinson noted that OBJ previously wanted a "Michael Gallup-like" contract with the Rams (five years and $57 million with $23 million guaranteed).
That's not going to happen in KC or with any other team. Beckham's best bet would be to sign a deal with the Chiefs like Robinson described, play with the best quarterback in the league in Patrick Mahomes, and then try to land a big deal next spring (or maybe an extension with Kansas City).
Beckham would be wise to even give KC a discount. He's not going to find a better situation than one with Mahomes in the picture. And playing with Mahomes should lead to a bigger payday next spring.
We'll see in the coming days/weeks how this all plays out, but I wouldn't be shocked to see Beckham wearing a Chiefs jersey in November.
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Featured image via Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
