LA Rams WR Odell Beckham Jr. may have torn ACL before free agency

The LA Rams won Super Bowl LVI by the score of 23-20 over the Cincinnati Bengals. But some believe that had wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. not injured his knee with just over three minutes to go in the first half of the game, the score would not have been close. And from the way the game was taking shape, they may have been correct.

But rather than delve into the what-if scenario, let’s focus instead on the here and now. Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. injured his knee, perhaps seriously, in the last game of the season. Since this injury occurred in February 2022, it could impact his availability for the 2022 NFL season.

And right now, the fear is that he may have suffered an ACL injury to his left knee. That was the same knee that was injured in 2020.

That report was later reiterated by Ian Rapoport, who also confirmed that OBJ was having an incredible game before the injury.

But now, the 2021 NFL season is over. The next milestone for the NFL is the 2022 NFL Free Agency market. Right now, Odell Beckham Jr. is projected to become a free agent at the end of the season. But even before the injury, he publicly stated that he would give the LA Rams a discount to return to the team. Now that he is coming off an injury, will the Rams abandon plans to extend him?

LA Rams are more likely to re-sign OBJ now

Actually, I think that the opposite is likely. The track record of the LA Rams is to assign a value to a player entering free agency based on their likely contribution, not on a ‘what if’ or ‘will he recover?’ basis. In 2020, the LA Rams extended players to contracts despite their return from injuries. In the case of OBJ, he was already making a full-faith effort to meet the team in the middle of any contract negotiations.

Don’t look for the LA Rams to play the heel now. I believe that they will offer a fair contract deal to extend OBJ. So does ESPN’s Chris Mortenson.

The evidence so far suggests that this more likely scenario will indeed result in the Rams re-signing Odell Beckham Jr. to another one-year deal. That will ensure he has a team to play for in 2022, and it will also guarantee that he will return to an offense that he is already familiar with.

Extending Odell Beckham Jr. one more season gives the team more options regarding the future of younger receivers like Van Jefferson, Tutu Atwell, Jacob Harris, and Ben Skowronek. What might that contract look like? Well, a one-year contract with built-in incentive clauses sounds about right. But we’ll know more after we get more information about his injury and the LA Rams overall.