Odell Beckham Jr. has found a new team, this time he is coming to the DMV with the Baltimore Ravens on an $18 million deal for one year. 

The move comes after a mediocre year for the Ravens in passing offense, ranking 4th worst in the league in passing yards per game, a massive fall from 13th place, where they stood last season.

“I’m just excited. I’m excited,” said star receiver Beckham. “but I’m also very determined and hungry, so through the smiles there’s still this eye that I really want this badly. I’m ready to be great” 

Most of the blame has gone on the Ravens’ lack of a true receiving corp, as the long-standing weakness at the wideout position reached a nadir in 2022 after trading away Marquise Brown to the Cardinals during last year’s draft, the Ravens were really thin in the receiver department. The team ended up signing a bunch of players that were cut by other teams as starters and it showed, as no one on the team went over the 1,000-yard mark in receiving.

I believe that Beckham will be able to thrive with his new team but there is always the concern about him getting injured as Beckham is no stranger to long-term injuries, as he’s torn the ACL in his right knee twice during his career and has a string of other injuries. 

But whether he’ll get injured isn’t the question here, the question is how will he bounce back from the injury that he suffered in his last NFL Game, which was in the Super Bowl against the Bengals, where his knee gave out. But to the surprise of many, Beckham had been playing without an ACL in his left knee since week 9 of the 2021 season, which he was informed by doctors about but continued to play. 

While it’s not a clear indication, it is worth a mention that in the season after Beckham torn his ACL the first time he only was able to put up 537 yards in 14 games which is very underwhelming considering that he had 319 yards in just 7 games of football before the injury, I feel that this time that stat will look different because he is in an offense where I supposed he would be the number one receiver on the roster and the number 2 option on the team behind Mark Andrews, meaning that he would be targeted more than he did at Cleveland and Los Angeles. 

Some players on the Ravens roster are pretty excited about Beckham joining the team, as receiver Rashod Bateman tweeted a “!” in reaction to the Ravens signing him. “Want to be best friends and win a Super Bowl??” Star cornerback Marlon Humphrey tweeted. “Let’s get it..!” and even former MVP Quarterback Lamar Jackson posted a photo of him and Beckham on a facetime call.

Since the signing, the Ravens have been able to acquire receiver Nelson Agholor and even draft Zay Flowers in the first round of the 2023 draft to help the receiving room. Signing Beckham may have even possibly opened up the huge 5 year, 260 million-dollar deal that the team and Lamar Jackson worked out after Jackson asked for a trade earlier in the offseason. 

Overall, I believe that this was a good move for the Ravens to make as this move made other wide receivers in the league want to come to Baltimore, and even helped their starting quarterback want to ink a long-term deal there. This move will make the Ravens a better team come September and I can’t wait to see how it works out for Beckham.