One game….One game was all it took for somebody to come out and state that Odell Beckham Jr. has runied his new team.
Legendary quarterback Troy Aikman raised questions over whether the addition of Odell Beckham Jr. will benefit the Los Angeles Rams and starting quarterback Matthew Stafford.
During an appearance on 96.7 The Ticket in Dallas, he stated Stafford “now feels some of the pressure that maybe Baker Mayfield felt of, Hey, we got to get this guy involved.”
Aikman speculated that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford felt the need to get him the ball early, which led to Stafford throwing an interception while targeting him downfield on LA’s first drive of the game.
“Matthew Stafford throws an interception on the opening possession because he’s trying to get the ball down to OBJ,” Aikman said, as transcribed by Mark Lane of Texans Wire. “Whether he stopped on the route or not, he’s not going to complete that pass. There’s two defenders back there. But I think Matthew now feels some of the pressure that maybe Baker Mayfield felt of, hey, we got to get this guy involved, or he’s in the game right now because he’s going to take this deep route and I’ve got to find a way to get this ball in his hands because that’s why he’s playing on this play. It’s not good, and it’s not good playing quarterback when you feel pressure to get the ball to one particular player. It just doesn’t work. So, I don’t know. Maybe they can pull themselves out of it and get it going. But that was a beatdown last night.”
Odell played 15 of a possible 56 snaps, only running 11 routes and catching two passes for 18 yards in the Rams’ 31-10 loss to San Francisco.
There’s absolutely nothing to suggest Beckham is already demanding the ball or that Stafford feels pressured to target him.
Give these guys more time to practice and gel together, and you just might see a difference on the field that wasn’t shown when he played alongside Baker Mayfield.
