LA Rams win now attracts another NFL star to roster: Odell Beckham Jr.
By Bret Stuter
The cost of doing business
The Cleveland Browns needed to rework their contract with OBJ in order to release him. After all, the team wanted salary cap relief, and Beckham wanted to restructure his deal to ensure that he ultimately had the right to choose his next team.
In a bit of Wall Street high finance, Beckham exited from the Cleveland Browns with a bit of a poison pill type of contract. In essence, any team claiming OBJ from the waiver wire would be on the hook for $7.5 million.
Regardless of what else you may think, that is a top-shelf price tag for a player who has not found the endzone once this season, and whose last 1000+ yards receiving occurred two years ago. But it was never intended to be an estimate of his worth. Rather, his new deal was created to ensure that no NFL team would submit a claim for him off the waiver wire.
Now that he is clear, he has the right to pursue a deal to play for whichever team he wishes to align with. It’s no longer about the money. He has that. Now, he is motivated by two other things: The chance to win a championship, and the team.