Odell Beckham contract details hint at why 1 team passed on him

Odell Beckham Jr.’s decision to sign with the Los Angeles Rams came as a surprise, but it looks less like one the more we learn about the factors that went into it.

Reports have indicated that Beckham was very interested in joining the Green Bay Packers, but the team did not launch a particularly aggressive pursuit of him. We may now know why. According to Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Rams gave Beckham a deal with a base salary of $1.25 million with $3 million in incentives. While the Packers could have done the same, it would have risked making an already bad cap situation worse in 2022.

So, source said OBJ receives $1.25M base salary and $3M in incentives. #Packers could have gone that high but every incentive he hit probably would have gone to next year’s cap and the #Packers are already buried next year. There was no offset with the Browns either.

— Tom Silverstein (@TomSilverstein) November 13, 2021

The Packers are facing an enormous cap bill in 2022. Their reworked contract with Aaron Rodgers basically ensured that, and even if the team moves on from Rodgers, they’re going to have to make some tough decisions to get under the salary cap. Adding Beckham could have exacerbated those issues, and that may have been why the team wasn’t more aggressive in pursuing him.

It’s been reported that Beckham wanted to play for Green Bay, but they offered much less than the Rams did. This is probably why the Packers were so conservative in their offer.

Photo: Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. returns to MetLife Stadium for the first time since he was traded by the New York Giants. The New York Jets lose to the Cleveland Browns, 23-3, in NFL Week 2 on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019, in East Rutherford. Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com, North Jersey Record via Imagn Content Services, LLC