ESPN reporter Jeremy Fowler has provided an update on when free-agent wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr is expected to come back from his knee injury. 

For someone as talented as Odell Beckham Jr and who has transcended the game the way he has, the past few years have certainly been very unkind to him and that has arguably made him something of an afterthought when it comes to the league landscape.

Whilst he has had his fair share of off-field issues, the recent problems stem from what has happened on the field, as his 2020 season was cut short thanks to an ACL injury. And whilst he was able to get through a whole campaign in 2021, it ended in the same fashion as he was carted off the field in the Super Bowl with the same injury. 

And those injuries are likely to have played a big part in why he hasn’t been able to find a new team this offseason, with teams perhaps cautious about the effects that two ACL injuries in two seasons can do to someone. 

It’s not all in the legs

Teams might be hesitant to bring him back for fear that he won’t be able to impress following his two injuries, but if his second comeback is anything like his first, then teams shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the idea. 

Last season he started 13 games, playing the first half of the year with the Browns before finishing off with the Rams, putting up 44 receptions for 537 yards and 5 touchdowns, numbers that without a doubt would make him very hot property in the free-agent market were it not for his injury situation:

His days of being a team’s number one receiver are certainly over, but when used sparingly and in a rotation with some of the other players on the team and at the right price, there is no doubt that he can still provide something to a team that needs to haul the ball in when they get down towards the red zone. 

But how long would a team need to wait for him before they could expect to see a return on their investment? 

When can we expect OBJ back? 

According to Fowler, who was speaking on ESPN’s Get Up on Monday (quoted by Bleacher Report), it is set to be some time before Beckham is back and ready to play football again, and that we might not expect to see Beckham back on a team until after the season has already started:

"But Beckham could take his time here because talking to teams, they don't expect Beckham to be healthy until October or maybe even November, as far as 'full-go' back from that ACL”. “So Beckham can take his time, maybe even wait until the first couple of weeks of the season, see who's hot, who needs a receiver. He will likely go to a contender."

If Fowler is right that it could be that long before he’s ready to put on the helmet and shoulder pads, then it wouldn’t be surprising to see him forced to sit out the whole year when you factor in how much time he would need to take to adjust to a new team.

But hopefully that isn’t the case, because on his day Beckham Jr can still put on a show and it would be a shame if we were to miss out on that this season.