Cowboys: Sign Odell Beckham Jr. Or 'Shut Up'; What Jerry Jones Critics Don't Get
FRISCO - Different media outlets have expressed the same Odell Beckham Jr.-related sentiment using varied levels of politeness directed at Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
The theme? That it’s time for the Cowboys to stop talking about signing OBJ and just sign him.
Deadspin, demonstrating a lack of manners, writes, "Hey Jerry ... sign OBJ or shut up!''
Unfortunately, the assorted media approaches - pacifying or patronizing to fans as they may be - are wrong-headed.
Besides the fact that the Cowboys owner, prone to blatherskite as he is, cannot "stop talking about'' things, there is this: The Cowboys cannot "just sign'' the three-time Pro Bowl receiver. ... because that is not how this works.
At all.
The Cowboys as an organization feel they have put down the groundwork for a blockbuster signing. Jones and the front office talk about it openly. The locker room, led by Dak Prescott, Micah Parsons, Ezekiel Elliott and CeeDee Lamb, talks about it longingly.
And behind the scenes, I promise you, Will McClay's scouting department and Mike McCarthy's coaching have have collected the OBJ research and they talk about Beckham lovingly.
"It’s time,” one outlet insists. "It’s just that simple.''
But in truth, it is nothing of the kind.
There has in fact, during my 40 years covering the NFL, never quite been a circumstance to match Beckham's free agency, all of which makes it anything but "simple.'' Is his knee fully rehabbed? Will he pass a physical? How long until he's football-ready? Will he work out for bidding teams? Is he worth $20 million APY? Is he a No. 1 receiver? Will he play nice with others? Is he a long-term add or a mercenary?
The Cowboys have satisfied themselves with some of the answers (the people who work or have worked here inside The Star absolutely rave about him as a person), and some of the answers are part of The Great Unknown, the greatest of which is ...
Odell Beckham Jr. wants to sign ... WHEN?
That's not just a "Cowboys thing.'' (Interestingly, I can't find any media outlets chastising the Bills, Giants or Niners for failing to "hurry up or shut up.'' I wonder why?) Dallas can't "just sign him'' because Dallas isn't in charge of the timing.
Beckham is.
Normally, when it comes to contractual issues, there are deadlines. The date to start the NFL's calendar year. The date to declare franchise tags. The date to start training camp. Cutdown dates. Week 1 of the season. The trade deadline.
The OBJ Sweepstakes features none of those.
Beckham's camp has whispered that "the end of November'' is a target date, but it's a soft target. It is up to him to decide how his knee feels, and it is up to him to decide whether a suitor is suitable - especially when it comes to a team's win-loss record ... something that reveals itself to him increasingly, Sunday by Sunday, the longer he waits.
Jones has actually gone public in trying to explain all of this, but is being largely ignored by the critics who fail to understand that the only "rules'' here are being written by OBJ.
“He’s not on a team at this time of year, a player of that caliber, that’s rare,'' Jones said. "Trading is over. ... We’re dealing with a situation where he’s free, but potentially very capable of helping a team right now win and play, and him play at a high level. That will tell you alone it is a rarified set of circumstances.''
"A rarified set of circumstances,'' that is, that no amount of Cowboys begging (or "shutting up'') will influence. The OBJ Sweepstakes, you see, isn't about what Jerry Jones thinks or what Jerry Jones says.
Nor is it about what any impatient or under-informed observers desires.
The only person in the world who can make everybody "shut up'' about Odell Beckham Jr. is ... Odell Beckham Jr.
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