The New York Giants are moving on from Odell Beckham Jr. again.
According to reporter Jordan Schultz, the team is releasing the veteran wide receiver after a brief and largely quiet return to the franchise that drafted him more than a decade ago.
Beckham made the initial 53-man roster when he came back this summer, but the opportunity never translated into a real role. Through three games in 2026 he has been on the field for only 20 snaps.
That kind of usage is a long way from the player who once defined Giants football with one-handed catches, sideline theatrics, and a celebrity presence that followed him everywhere. At 33, the production and the snaps have both dried up.
His original chapter in New York still looms over the story. The Giants selected him 12th overall in 2014, and he quickly became one of the league’s most electric receivers. In 2018 he was due a base salary of about $8.46 million when the two sides agreed to a five-year extension worth up to $95 million, with $65 million in guarantees.
The marriage did not last. New York traded him to Cleveland in 2019 for the No. 17 overall pick, a second third-round selection, and safety Jabrill Peppers.
The Browns reworked his contract and then waived him after the 2021 trade deadline. Beckham finished that season with the Rams, won a Super Bowl, and tore his ACL in the title game. He sat out all of 2022.
Baltimore signed him for a year, he later landed in Miami on a one-year, $3 million deal, and the Dolphins cut him in December 2024.
In June, he circled back to the Giants on a one-year, $1.3 million contract that carried a $1.075 million cap hit under the veteran minimum salary benefit.
That homecoming now ends the same way so many late-career stops have ended for him: with a roster decision that says the team no longer sees a fit.
Releasing him will not rewrite the highlight-reel years in New York, and it will not erase the Super Bowl ring he earned in Los Angeles. It does, however, close another short chapter.
A player who once commanded massive guarantees and weekly attention is again available, this time after barely leaving the sideline.
Whether another team still believes Beckham can contribute as a complementary receiver remains to be seen. What is already clear is that the Giants, after giving him one more look, decided 20 snaps were enough.
The organization that made him a star is choosing a different direction, and the veteran who once seemed inseparable from the Giants brand is heading back to free agency.
