New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning knows that he and the rest of the team ask a lot of star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. Since Beckham's former running mate, Victor Cruz, went down with a patella injury in October of 2014, the man they call OBJ has become the unquestioned leader of the Giants' wide receiver and offensive skill player corps. Through just two seasons in the NFL, Beckham has garnered a whopping 291 of Manning's targets and managed 187 often highlight reel-worthy receptions.
No matter, says Manning. Beckham can do more.
"Odell has obviously done great things, but we need him to raise his level as well," Manning said recently, presumably with a straight face.
It's hard to imagine just what else Manning thinks Beckham is capable of doing. In a way, it's kind of a scary thought. If the many who can do this...
...is capable of even more than the dual 1,300-plus yard, 12-plus touchdown seasons he's put together through the first two years of his career, then NFL and NFC East defenses should be petrified.
Or at least more petrified of Beckham than they already are.
But, like any player, even a clear-cut star, Beckham does have holes to his game - they're just minute and extremely difficult to see. Really, they're more an extension of his playing style, meaning that the things that make him so effective - his tenacity, his willingness to lay out and fight for every inch, his immense and almost otherworldly athleticism - often leaves him vulnerable, either to injury or the kind of ugly display that went on this past season when Beckham went toe-to-toe with Panthers cornerback Josh Norman.
Still, Manning really can't ask for all that much more out of Beckham on the field. But with Reuben Randle off to greener pastures and Cruz maybe, sort of, kind of healthy, Manning may have no choice but to try and squeeze a higher level of play out of the already taxed OBJ.
"There are things he can work on and we ask a lot of him," Manning said. "He's required to know a lot of different routes and a lot of techniques and exactly how to do it. That's the way he's gonna get a lot of balls and be in position to do a lot of things."
