Editor’s note: This is Part 10 of 26 in Art Stapleton’s New York Giants summer series Q&A
The New York Giants have a Super Bowl winner and possible Hall of Famer at head coach in John Harbaugh, with whom the entire team can strive for a championship standard the franchise has failed to meet for far too long now.
The standing ovation for Harbaugh from the assembled Giants fans inside Beacon Theatre back in May for the team’s Town Hall event was only just the beginning.
And Harbaugh, their head coach set to usher in yet another new era for the franchise in its 102nd year, certainly knew how to play to his audience moments later.
With chants of “Cowboys suck” ringing out around him, Harbaugh was asked by a fan if he could promise the Giants were done being kicked around by their NFC rivals and most hated foes: the Dallas Cowboys, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders.
That’s when Harbaugh with 193 career victories rallied a fan base with a pledge that felt an awful lot like a battle cry he will repeatedly deliver between now and the start of the season.
“I could [not] care less about what’s happened last year or the year before that or 10 years before that,” Harbaugh said. “All I care about is tomorrow’s practice, because if tomorrow’s practice is the way it’s supposed to be, that will be one more step in the direction of being a good enough football team to kick the Cowboys’ ass.”
For now, there are far more questions than answers. But we hope to set the table for the summer and beyond with 26 questions that will define the 2026 Giants season.
Question #10: What are the expectations for Odell Beckham Jr.?
The flair for the dramatic that breathed life into a generation of fans might still be there inside Odell Beckham Jr., turning him into one of the most popular yet polarizing players in the 102-year history of Giants football.
The iconic tousled blonde hair that inspired many barber shop requests worldwide is gone, and Beckham’s a father now, insisting his return to the franchise that once traded him away is a chance to show 4-year-old Zydn – born just days after Dad won the Super Bowl with the Rams in 2022 – to never quit.
The surreal has become reality for Beckham and the Giants, and however long it lasts, the promise of spectacular one-handed catches and breathtaking slants to the house aside, this homecoming comes with expectation and doubt all the same.
All of the above makes for a great story, of course. But it’s not solely why the second marriage of Beckham and the Giants has been bandied about as a viable option for months now.
Beckham, 33, wants more than anything to bring his NFL career full circle by catching passes from Jaxson Dart and providing a generation of Giants fans who never had the chance to say thank you and good-bye with that opportunity all these years later.
The signing of Beckham was not for nostalgia, but because the Giants owed it to themselves to find out if their former first-round pick has enough juice left in his game to offer despite not playing all of last season.
As Harbaugh suggested, a Beckham return is not as the OBJ who lit the league on fire, but Odell 2.0.
That’s not saying Beckham is old and washed, but it’s understandable. He’ll be wearing No. 3 – his college number at LSU, the one he donned when he won his Super Bowl ring – doubling up with Abdul Carter for the summer since his more familiar No. 13 still belongs to Jalin Hyatt.
He has rejoined the team that drafted him and for whom he swiftly reached unexpected heights and worldwide popularity. “The Catch” created the OBJ phenomenon, with one-handed catches taking on a life of their own, and at every level of the sport. Those inside the Giants’ organization have never doubted Beckham’s competitive spirit, however, and Harbaugh can appreciate the humility for a player that comes with all that water under the bridge.
Will Beckham have the explosiveness and breakaway speed that made him so dangerous as a playmaker in his 20s? That’s unlikely. But he’s always been a nuanced route runner, has great hands and – as he showed in the March flag football exhibition run in Los Angeles by Tom Brady – he still has an ability to go up and get the football in traffic.
One of Jaxson Dart’s greatest strengths is making things happen off-script and out of the pocket, and that’s ultimately where Beckham’s savvy could pay dividends, there and as a red zone threat.
There are always going to be detractors when it comes to Beckham, and he brought a lot of that upon himself when he was younger. He made mistakes out of immaturity and ego, but truth be told, at the heart of everything, Beckham was frustrated with losing and desperately wanted to win as a Giant.
This isn’t about righting wrongs of the past. If Beckham can’t play to the level he believes he can, he won’t be on the team. He can retire a Giant and take his place as the face of a franchise’s missing generation, one that had some special moments even with all the losing.
How the wide receiver room comes together this summer with Malik Nabers’ ACL recovery and availability shaping so much of what the Giants’ offense looks like. Beckham isn’t an obvious option on special teams, so he will have to produce while proving he can stay healthy over the course of training camp and the preseason.
Nothing we saw from Beckham in the spring suggests he won’t have a puncher’s chance at sticking with the Giants; but this comeback story has a couple unwritten chapters remaining before that fate is determined.
“I’m going out on my sword either way it goes,” Beckham said, relaying how Harbaugh told him he did not initially want to bring him in just to release him. “If that’s what you have to do when you see that I’m not at my best or not fit, then by all means, I’m good with it.”
And the Giants might just wind up with a difference maker ready to prove himself and a burning desire to show this franchise and its fans just how far he has come.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: What are expectations for Odell Beckham Jr. with NY Giants in 2026?
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