Pro Bowl Draft 2016: Ranking the New York Giants
By Mike Luca
3. Odell Beckham Jr. (WR—Team Rice)
With the Carolina Panthers reaching the Super Bowl and rendering Josh Norman ineligible, Beckham Jr. and the nation benefit from the removed distraction more than anything else. The Madden-Cursed, Code Black-starring and “King of the One-Handed Grab” is the unofficial spokesmodel of this year’s Pro Bowl in spite of sophomore growing pains and antics.
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OBJ should clearly relish in a maintained rapport with Manning and Globetrotting with LSU-BFF Jarvis Landry before and during the game. He also faces favorable match-ups with defenders Richard Sherman (whom he torched with 7 receptions, 108 yards and a touchdown in 2014) and Desmond Trufant (7 REC, 144 YDS, 1 TD on Sept. 20).
Rice alluded to preferring players that would have fun and put on show for the hundreds of people watching, and Beckham Jr. fits that mold better than Shamu in Las Vegas with Jennifer Lopez. It’ll be entertaining as always to witness his authentic self unleashed for at least a quarter, with the knowledge or hope that he sincerely learned a lot from his 2015 campaign moving forward.
He shall cleanly tweet as he desires throughout this game, but if OBJ wishes to join Rice and Irvin in MVP lore, he’ll have to put the phone down and burst into the huddle unannounced within the waning minutes.