Odell Beckham Jr. has officially found the light at the end of the tunnel, as the veteran wide receiver has made the team’s initial 53-man roster. He returns to where it all began for him, after a complete offseason of making every rep and snap count.
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“I am excited. I found out when I was walking off the field. Coach said congratulations, and he said that I worked hard. I told him I will give him everything I got. He said ‘let’s go do it,'” Beckham told Josina Anderson.
Beckham’s comeback with the franchise that drafted him 12th overall back in 2014 is now official, eight years after the Giants traded him to the Cleveland Browns. He last played a regular-season snap for New York on December 2, 2018. Before he was signed by the team, Beckham was reported to have met with the Giants’ top brass during the annual league meetings this year.
The 33-year-old receiver entered the summer without any guarantee that he would make the team. New York allowed him to compete after he spent the entire 2025 season out of football, making his roster bid one of the more closely watched storylines of the Giants’ preseason.
Beckham made the most of his chances when he got onto the field. He finished the preseason with seven catches for 76 yards across three games, including his strongest performance in Friday’s 23-6 win over the New York Jets. He caught three passes for 53 yards in that game, with all three receptions moving the chains. He averaged 17.7 yards in that game.
That performance came at an important time. Giants head coach John Harbaugh had praised Beckham throughout camp but stopped short of guaranteeing him a place on the final roster. Before the decision was announced, Harbaugh said Beckham had shown enough to continue playing in the NFL.
“Yes, he has done enough to make an NFL roster, for sure,” Harbaugh said. “He’s played well. He’s gotten better as camp’s gone along. He deserves credit for that. He’s done a really good job with it.”
The Giants also had to make adjustments within their receiver group. Wide receiver Calvin Austin III suffered a season-ending knee injury during practice last week, creating another opening as New York finalized its roster.
New York selected Beckham 12th overall in the 2014 NFL Draft, and he quickly became one of the league’s stars, won Offensive Rookie of the Year, and earned three straight Pro Bowl selections during his first five seasons with the franchise. His career later took him to the Los Angeles Rams, Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, and Miami Dolphins.
Beckham won his only Super Bowl with the Rams in Super Bowl LVI, though a torn ACL during the game ended what had been a strong postseason run.
His most recent NFL season came with Miami in 2024, when his role was limited. He then missed the 2025 season after receiving a six-game suspension under the NFL’s performance-enhancing substances policy and remaining unsigned afterward.
“It was a tough couple of years, taking a step back and deciding to go forward with life — are you done, the mental battles that we go through — and just push through, persevere and overcome adversity and just, like I said, I’m truly grateful,” Beckham said after the Jets game. ” … I’ve grown so much, and it would mean everything to me if I made it.”
The Giants open their regular season on September 13 at home against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. If Beckham suits up that night, it will mark his first home game in a Giants uniform since 2018.