The Miami Dolphins made an important roster move when they signed Odell Beckham Jr. to be their No. 3 wide receiver. Naturally, there are many opinions and thoughts on how Beckham will fair for this Dolphins offense.
We were all in agreement that the Dolphins needed to bring in a legit wide receiver to go along with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Miami added Malik Washington and Tahj Washington in the later rounds of the NFL Draft, but they're not going to make the kind of difference OBJ will. Having said that, look for Beckham to play a key role in things, with these three impacts in mind:
Odell Beckham Jr. pulls up to Dolphins facilities as signing made official this morning.pic.twitter.com/CUU7DCz1Ie
— David Furones (@DavidFurones_) May 8, 2024
3. Odell Beckham's arrival will help the running game
Let's get the obvious one out of the way; with Beckham being able to line up anywhere on the field, no team will be able to load up the box. Now, a lot of this is predicated on the rest of the Dolphins offense doing their jobs. With that, OBJ in town is going to help out the running game. How so?
I know we all want to see Mike McDaniel run three-receiver sets with Hill, Waddle, and Beckham out there. I'm not different in that regard. That's going to be a lot of fun to see how McDaniel schemes up that particular set.
However, what I'm looking forward to the most is when Hill or Waddle aren't in the game, and Beckham takes their place. The defenses still have to honor him because he does have a bit more in the tank. This means that the defense can't simply concentrate on taking out Hill or Waddle and have everyone load the box to stop the run.
Raheem Mostert and De'Von Achane feast on 7-man boxes and with their speed, as we saw often last year, they can break the game open on any carry. Beckham's presence keeps the offense rolling - maybe not as dangerous as Hill and Waddle on the field at the same time, but the drop shouldn't be that far off.
2. Odell Beckham Jr. will force Tua Tagovailoa and Mike McDaniel to step up
Tua Tagovailoa led the league in passing yards last year, but he had difficulty not being locked on one receiver or one read. There were far too many games where Tagovailoa would drop back and stare down Hill. He'd throw it his way despite the All-Pro WR being covered. That can't continue to be the case.
With Beckham out there with Hill and Waddle, both Tua and McDaniel now have zero reason not to focus on the QB working through his progressions. This makes the entire offense ever better because it doesn't allow the defense to load up on Hill. From the start, Tagovailoa is going to have to spread the ball around and not be so dependent on Hill to bail him out.
McDaniel has that big brain of his and he needs to use it, and Tagovailoa needs to step up in the pocket and, quickly, get through his reads. Beckham should force both of them to be better, which is a positive for Miami as a whole.
1. Odell Beckham Jr. will take pressure off of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle
The No. 1 impact of having Beckham on the Miami Dolphins is that he gives the team and Mike McDaniel a very real chance of not running Hill and Waddle into the ground. At the end of last year, we saw that Hill wasn't anywhere close to 100 percent. He got hurt in the Titans game and was never close to the same. He was out there playing, but not close to his standard. This was a bummer to see, as Hill was downright electric for most of the 2023 campaign.
The same goes for Waddle. Waddle got hurt often and kept playing through it. He was a shell of himself in that Chiefs game at Arrowhead. With Beckham, it means that both Hill and Waddle can come out of games a bit more and not be relied on to do everything in the passing game. This will help keep them fresh, especially late in games.
This isn't to say that when it's Week 7 in the 3rd quarter and the game is close, a form of load management needs to be in place. All I'm saying is that a rotation of Hill, Waddle and Beckham is what this team needs, so that late in the year when the stakes are higher, Hill and Waddle can be on the field closer to their true selves.
This means that McDaniel needs to find out early in the year what Beckham can do for this offense. Is Beckham going to be the same kind of receiver he was with the New York Giants to start his career? Absolutely not, but luckily for McDaniel and Co., he doesn't have to be to be a stud for Miami.