LA Rams WR Odell Beckham Jr’s ACL surgery is a success.

LA Rams veteran wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. gambled on himself and the LA Rams when he signed on with the team to finish out the second half of the NFL season. He gambled further on the team when he agreed to embed $3 million of his overall compensation value into incentives that were based on how well the team did in the 2021 postseason.

Per Spotrac.com, his 2021 compensation broke down as follows:

Base Salary:           $1,250,000

But much of his contract’s value was based upon incentive clauses. Those incentives included:
Wildcard win or bye: $500,000
Divisional win:            $750,000
NFC Champ win:        $750,000
Super Bowl Win:     $1,000,000 (if active)

Total incentives:      $3,000,000

The total value of his 2021 contract with the LA Rams: $4.25 million.

In the end, he bet on the LA Rams and won.  He more than tripled the value of his contract by agreeing to incentives that were linked to the LA Rams’ post-season success. Now, for the contractual relationship to continue, the organization must be willing to exhibit that same level of belief in the player.

ACL at the worst time

You see, OBJ suffered an ACL injury before halftime of Super Bowl LVI. Due to the timing of the injury, he may not be ready to play football until December 2022 at the earliest. The good news is that his surgery went well. And on top of that, he is the proud father of a newborn, Zydn.

Now that the surgery was a success, he will be cleared to begin the long and painful journey through rehabilitation back to play in the NFL. And so, the opportunity to extend his play with the team will require a similar amount of trust from the organization in the player as he had demonstrated in his trust for the team.

Right now, the Rams appear to have Cooper Kupp, Van Jefferson, and Ben Skowronek as the only receivers to finish the season in relative health. But even Skowronek broke his arm in training camp and was limited early in the season. So extending OBJ would not seem to be too far out of the norm for the team at this point.

As we had reported earlier, the Rams and Beckham seemed to be nearing an agreement in principle before OBJ’s injury. I believe that a contract agreement can still remain very close. It’s clear that before his injury, OBJ was rather motivated to return to the LA Rams. Now, the Rams have the onus to ensure that Odell Beckham Jr remains a member of the team. Will it happen?

Stay tuned…