Steelers signing Odell Beckham Jr. could be deadly for young offensive stars

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been making moves during the free agency period and filling some gaps on the depth chart. One position that has been discussed but has yet to be filled in is wide receiver. During his recent podcast, "The Arthur Moats Experience," former Steelers linebacker Arthur Moats and his co-host Deke spoke about the positives and negatives of bringing veteran and former Cleveland Brown, Odell Beckham Jr. to Pittsburgh.

The Steelers aren’t in terrible shape at receiver, having Diontae Johnson, George Pickens, Steven Sims, Gunner Olszewski, Myles Boykin and Calvin Austin III. However, Boykin and Sims are both free agents and Austin is unproven having missed all of last season with an injury. Additionally, all of the receivers are young, with Johnson being the oldest at 26. Many analysts and fans think that the Steelers should consider signing Beckham for both his talent and his veteran status, Moats says one negative strongly outweighs the positives for him (unless he comes dirt cheap). 

Steelers Shouldn’t Sign Beckham In Part Because He Doesn’t Respect Young QBs Like Pickett, says Moats

Moats said that there are plusses to signing him in free agency, including the fact that the Steelers won’t have to worry about drafting a receiver and can continue to focus on depth and the trenches. 

“Odell makes every team better from an Xs and Os perspective. It’s like Antonio Brown makes every team better because of how talented they are, how dynamic they are, the big play capability. Even with Odell coming off multiple ACLs he’s still a nice receiver when he is healthy.”

Moats says it isn’t just his production you are considering but also the fact that he draws the attention of the defense away from Pickens and Johnson allowing them to get open. While Moats says he tried to take into consideration that Beckham has hopefully matured. However, he said it is hard to know if he really has grown or if things were just going well for him for the most part during his last season playing (in 2021 with the Los Angeles Rams). Beckham was pretty drama-free in LA but he was injured during the Rams Super Bowl win and required surgery to repair his ACL. He was not signed by a team for the 2022 season. Moats maintained that Beckham is unpredictable.

“He could go AB (Antonio Brown) on us, code red, blow up - he’s beating up the kicking net, looking at Kenny (Pickett), and talking crazy to him.”

Moats goes on to say that when looking at Beckham’s past behavior, it makes a difference that the Steelers have a young quarterback. Beckham had respect for Eli Manning, a vet when he played in New York. But once he moved to the Browns he didn’t treat a young Baker Mayfield the same way. 

“Baker was never as established as Eli Manning was, so when I think of that dynamic, the respect factor, if I’m Odell I have a hard time listening and respecting Baker to that extent if I’m not getting my numbers and you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing as the quarterback. Slightly different when you go out to LA with Matthew Stafford, a veteran, established, has proven what he could do so they meshed well. It wasn’t like Odell was there all offseason he came on while they were already hot. I just think the respect was a little bit easier for Odell, for him to fall in line. Not complaining he wasn’t getting a ton of targets, not complaining if he wasn’t being featured because he was hopping on a moving train with a guy who was already doing it at a high level.” 

“My concern is that Kenny is still new in this league. To fans, he’s accomplished a lot. To NFL players he’s accomplished nothing, you gotta do something more than what we’ve just seen. That’s cool for the crowd, that’s cool where we won’t draft a guy on you, but you’ve proven nothing to the extent that you’re above reproach and we truly believe you’re the guy without it just being lip service. That’s the issue I potentially see with Odell. When it’s not going his way in terms of role, in terms of numbers, and he’s looking at Kenny like ‘yo you need to be feeding it to me.’ Odell in the game with Baker? Baker struggled. Odell not in the game with Baker? Baker played well. Because he didn’t have to worry about that dynamic of I’ve got to get this guy the ball to keep him happy.” 

Moats mentions his second concern is that Beckham could always bring drama to the Steelers and that is not the culture of the team. 

“There’s also the part that he could come in here like ‘George Pickens I like your energy but you gotta demand, you gotta be like this bro. Or ‘Hey Diontae you be doing it soft man in terms of the subliminals on social media, this is how you do it, call your pops up and tell him to say this.’ That’s what you gotta worry about with Odell.”