Three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. made his Dolphins debut last Sunday after beginning the season on the physically unable to perform list.
Odell Beckham Jr. was signed to bolster the Miami Dolphins’ wide receiving corps, led by the dynamic one-two punch of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Beckham, a three-time Pro Bowl receiver, made his Dolphins debut last Sunday after missing the season’s first-four games while recovering from offseason knee surgery.
The Dolphins played five wide receivers in Week 5’s 15-10 win over the New England Patriots. Hill led the Dolphins with 62 snaps (79%), followed closely by Waddle with 61. Rookie Malik Washington was No. 3 with 20 snaps, ahead of Braxton Berrios (15) and Beckham, who played 11 snaps in his return to the field.
“A little sore and I didn’t even get to play that much, but it was really more so the build-up to the game and how hard I practiced,” Beckham said of how he felt following the game. ”So going into the game I was a little sore, but it’s all about building up the callous. These guys and everyone else across the league have gone through a full training camp, has gone through four weeks of a season, or whatever. Far, far ahead of me in conditioning and their ability of feeling what it feels like to play football at the highest level day in and day out with practice or game, whatever it is. I felt good.”
Sunday’s game marked Beckham’s first appearance in 10 months. The last time he played was in the AFC Championship Game on January 28, where he caught three of six targets as the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Baltimore Ravens 17-10.
Of his 11 snaps, he lined up five times in the slot and the other six out wide. While he was only targeted once by quarterback Tyler Huntley, Beckham’s focused on helping snap the Dolphins’ three-game losing streak.
“Not as many snaps as I thought were going to happen just kind of the way that practice went, but it really was a point in the season where we were 1-3, like we needed to do whatever it was to win that game and just being able to run the ball the way that we did, to be able to stay resilient and find a way to win; that was the only thing that really mattered going into the bye week,” Beckham explained Tuesday.
With the Indianapolis Colts and Arizona Cardinals both under .500, the Dolphins have an opportunity to build momentum after the bye week. Huntley’s 194-yard performance against the Patriots showed his growing comfort in leading the offense, a step up from his 96 passing yards in Week 4.
Beckham’s return, while limited, marks an important step forward for the Dolphins’ offense. With Huntley getting comfortable and a possible Tua Tagovailoa return on the horizon, the bye week couldn’t have come at a better time for a team desperate to get healthy and right the ship after early season struggles.
“I think I was definitely grateful and blessed to be out there, but for me it felt like less pressure than it had ever felt in my entire life,” Beckham said, “Like let’s just go play football and have fun, which is a good feeling, instead of feeling super worried about something else or whatever the case may be. I was definitely excited to be able to be back on the football field. It felt good.”
