Giants star Odell Beckham says he won’t play in the preseason

Odell Beckham Jr. says he won’t play a single snap in the 2018 preseason.

A Giants fan named Stan Hardter @stanbryan81 tweeted at Beckham on Friday night: “Zero preseason snaps please.” And Beckham answered Saturday morning with a short but clear tweet:

“0,” Beckham replied from his @OBJ_3 account.

So was this a promise or a threat? It’s hard to believe this been endorsed by the team this early. And if it had been, wouldn’t the Giants be announcing it, not OBJ himself?

Beckham obviously has good reason to avoid the preseason. Last Aug. 21, he suffered a brutal high left ankle sprain on a dangerous low hit by Browns safety Briean Boddy-Calhoun in the second quarter of a Monday Night Football preseason game in Cleveland. The injury sidelined Beckham for the Giants’ season-opening loss in Dallas, and he eventually broke the same ankle in a Week 5 home loss to the L.A. Chargers.

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Still, it’s unlikely Beckham and new head coach Pat Shurmur already have discussed Beckham sitting out the preseason, mid-rehab for Beckham and mid-negotiation for the Giants and Beckham’s agent on a contract extension. Even if they did, presumably Shurmur would not want Beckham airing organizational plans for the world to see.

And more importantly, if the Giants and Beckham’s agent don’t agree to a long-term contract extension this offseason, Beckham could hold out -- and would be warranted in doing so -- entering the fifth and final year of his rookie contract. So his statement that he won’t play in the preseason has to be considered a possible threat within that narrative, a line drawn in the sand of who dictates terms when it comes to OBJ’s career.

On top of all that, team president John Mara stressed when Shurmur was hired that Beckham needed to speak with the new coach about “how we’re gonna act.” Their meeting went well by all accounts, but is publicly announcing playing time plans on Twitter within Shurmur’s new code of Giant ethics? I wouldn’t think so.

Beckham, 25, also is coming off ankle surgery, so the Giants of course at some point are going to want to see him prove he can play at full strength. That’s not saying they have to put him in harm’s way in a preseason game necessarily, but they certainly wouldn’t seem to be in a position to guarantee him anything in the way of playing time at this point, when new GM Dave Gettleman is only just getting started in his roster reconstruction.

Anyway, buckle up. If Beckham is now publicly dictating terms on his playing time, then this could become the first public shot fired in negotiations not only on a new contract but on how Beckham will behave once he signs one.