Giants release veteran fan favorite WR Odell Beckham Jr.

Pat Leonard, New York Daily News on Sep 29, 2026

Published in Football

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NEW YORK — The fans wanted Odell Beckham Jr. more involved in the offense. The New York Giants released him instead.

John Harbaugh cut the former Giants great from the roster on Tuesday, sources confirmed to the New York Daily News, just two days after the MetLife Stadium crowd chanted OBJ’s name looking for his first catch of the season that never came.

Beckham, 33, played 20 total snaps in the Giants’ first three games and finished with only one target and no catches.

Harbaugh and the Giants squeezed almost two months of good public relations out of Beckham’s exciting return to the roster. It helped to have the headline of OBJ making the 53-man roster while the organization cut former No. 7 overall pick Evan Neal, for example.

But Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy barely put Beckham on the field against the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Rams and Tennessee Titans, even though top wideout Malik Nabers has not looked right physically in his first few games back from knee surgery.

Harbaugh said last Friday that he “would be all for” getting Beckham more involved in the offense this past Sunday against the Titans.

“I would think Sunday would be great,” Harbaugh said. “I would be all for it for Sunday. That would be the perfect time in my mind. So I hope that happens this Sunday.”

But on Thursday, Nagy had not painted an encouraging picture for Beckham’s role to grow much.

“Odell, he can [run] routes, everything, he does a lot of good things well,” Nagy said. “We’re trying to probably slowly package him in some things offensively. So it’s not that he’s just a backup. There are some times when, whatever it is personnel-wise, that we have it on the game plan. We just didn’t get to it.

“Or,” Nagy said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to be ready.’ One injury away from being in all the time. And he knows that. He understands that.”

There were signs of this coming. Beckham showed up shortly after 11 a.m. ET to last Sunday’s 1 p.m. kickoff — a late arrival for him — and went in the back door of the locker room rather than doing his typical walk-in past the NFL’s cameras.

He hadn’t spoken to the media in a couple weeks, either.

The evolution of Harbaugh’s first Giants receiver room has been curious to say the least.

Harbaugh gave Beckham a chance to earn his way onto the team this summer, and OBJ did that with dutiful work in training camp. Calvin Austin III was slated to be a major factor in the rotation, but he tore the ACL in his right knee late in camp.

That allowed both Beckham and veteran Darius Slayton to make the roster, but Harbaugh eventually decided to release Slayton days later. He has since signed with the Indianapolis Colts and reunited with Daniel Jones.

Beckham’s release means the Giants now have only four receivers on their 53-man roster as they prepare to host the Arizona Cardinals this Sunday: Nabers, Darnell Mooney, Malachi Fields and Braxton Berrios, who was signed off the practice squad on Tuesday.

Beckham’s final snaps as a Giant, it turns out, were back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter. In between, the crowd started chanting as one: “OBJ! OBJ!”

Jameis Winston looked like he was eyeing Beckham for a completion on a shallow cross on the ensuing third down, but the QB was sacked before he could let go of the ball.

So, it turned out when Beckham ripped his helmet off in the end zone after player introductions last Sunday and screamed to fire up the fans, he was actually saying goodbye.

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