Packers insider says Green Bay ‘could have gone that high‘ for OBJ
By Josh Hill
The question of whether or not the Green Bay Packers could have signed Odell Beckham Jr seems to have finally been answered.
When Odell Beckham Jr hit free agency last week, among the list of teams he might end up with when the dust settled included the usual suspects.
Patrick Mahomes and Chiefs, Russell Wilson and the Seahawks, and Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.
None of those three tandems ended up landing OBJ, as he opted to sign with Matthew Stafford and the Rams. Beckham signing on the dotted line in Los Angeles hasn’t put an end to the raging debate in Green Bay about whether or not the Packers did all they could to bring in a potential final piece to its Super Bowl puzzle.
Making matters worse was an incendiary report from Yahoo! Sports on Friday that blamed the Packers front office for lowballing Beckham. Taking that at face value, it’s an indictment that plays into a narrative of ineptitude that has followed the Packers front office all season long. Instead, it points to a picture rather than paints one, as it simply serves as a reminder that the Packers don’t have the type of money the average fan might assume they do.
Packers: Offering OBJ more money was possible, but bad business
According to Packers insider Tom Silverstein, Green Bay could have signed Odell Beckham Jr., but the optics of the deal didn’t mesh with reality.
“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,” Silverstein wrote. “There was no offset with the Browns either.”
It’ll be easy to read into the first part of that and freak out about it at surface level. Yes, the Green Bay could have afforded to sign Odell Beckham Jr., no it couldn’t really afford to do so.
It’s a tough pill for fans in Green Bay to swallow though, who on one had are hearing the team is strapped for resources yet watched the Rams sign OBJ while pawning off everything except the silverware to create room for players like Von Miller, Jalen Ramsey, and other key pieces.