What Giants' Signing Odell Beckham Jr., JuJu Smith-Schuster Means for WR Room

The New York Giants made it a hat trick, signing three wide receivers to fill three roster spots at a position where the depth was, to put it bluntly, shaky.

Odell Beckham Jr., JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Braxton Berrios are coming in to shore up the Giants' receivers room that is currently facing adversity. A sudden injury bug swept through the room, sidelining Malik Nabers (knee), Darius Slayton (sports hernia), and Gunner Olszewski (Achilles).

It’s quite the haul to add to a room that already includes rookie third-round pick Malachi Fields. It is also the kind of maneuver that not only provides reinforcements to an injury-depleted position but also gives second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart some experienced firepower.

Let’s take a closer look at what each receiver potentially has to offer.

Odell Beckham, Jr.

Ready for Odell’s return 😤 pic.twitter.com/ZeFeUylYlT
— New York Giants (@Giants) June 1, 2026

That loud cheer that rang through the air of the Northern New Jersey area likely came from Beckham, the Giants’ first-round draft pick in 2014 who enjoyed some of his finest seasons while he was with Big Blue, including four of his five 1,000-yard campaigns.

Beckham, who has made no secret of his desire to rejoin the Giants, who traded him after the 2018 season, one year into the contract extension he had signed, headlined the four-man workout Monday morning.

An X-receiver during his time with the Giants and someone who could also move inside to the slot, Beckham projects to pick up the pass targets that would have otherwise gone to Nabers, the third-year receiver who is still on the road to recovering from a serious ACL injury suffered in Week 4 last year.

While not the same receiver he was earlier in his career, the Giants are hoping that those qualities that made Beckham special, such as his ability to separate, body control during contested catches, yards after catch ability, and strong hands, are still a part of his game.

Beckham, who suffered two ACL injuries along the way, boasts a 45.4% career contested catch rate and has accounted for 2,798 yards after the catch throughout his career (4.7 YAC/reception).

Since entering the league in 2014, his 7,987 receiving yards rank seventh out of 31 qualifying receivers with a minimum of 500 receptions.

His 4.7 YAC average ranks 12th among that same qualifying group, and his 14 career drops put him 11th.

Beckham, who never made any secret of his desire to return to the Giants, receives a one-year deal which should allow him to finish out his NFL career with the team that got him started.

JuJu Smith-Schuster

The #Giants add another veteran WR: The team is signing JuJu Smith-Schuster after today’s workout, sources tell me and @RapSheet.

Added today:

Odell Beckham
Braxton Berrios
Smith-Schuster pic.twitter.com/Fqxj9Jz0Nz
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) June 1, 2026

Smith-Schuster spent two of his last three seasons in Kansas City, making him someone with whom Giants offensive coordinator Matt Nagy is very familiar.

Smith-Schuster, who projects to fill the Darius Slayton WR2 role, is a physical possession receiver who, although not possessing elite speed to slice the top off of the defense, excels against zone coverage, is a good downfield blocker, and can improvise when a play breaks down.

Smith-Schuster, who can give a team snaps in both the slot and on the perimeter, has a career 50% contested catch rate and has averaged 11.6 yards per reception. In the last two seasons, he’s graded 77.6 and 72.8 in the blocking category

Braxton Berrios

We've signed WR Braxton Berrios ✍️ pic.twitter.com/wX2144TqKL
— New York Giants (@Giants) June 1, 2026

The first of the three receiver signings announced on Monday, Berrios’s likely role will be to compete as a returner, the role that Olszewski held for the team last year.

In losing Olszewski, the Giants lost a punt returner who ranked ninth (9.0 yards/return) and a kickoff returner who ranked 14th (26.2 yards/return) last season.

Berrios hasn’t really been deployed much as a returner over the last two seasons (one each with Miami and Houston), having returned just 10 punt returns and three kickoffs in 10 games over that span.

However, he does have a career kickoff return average of 24.9 yards and a career run return average of 11.3 yards, both averages that aren’t that far off from what Olszewski generated last season.

What the Giants' depth chart at receiver looks like now

Football wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

There is still the matter of training camp competitions to sort out who actually makes the roster and who doesn’t, but here’s a very early guess at what the Giants could eventually be looking at, per Ourlads.

Position	1	2	3	4	5
LWR	Odell Beckham Jr	Malachi Fields	Jalin Hyatt	Ryan Miller	Malik Nabers*
RWR	Darius Slayton*	Isaiah Hodgins	Beaux Collins	Dalen Cambre
SWR	JuJu Smith-Schuster	Calvin Austin III	Braxton Berrios	Xavier Gipson

* Denotes an injured player

Beckham, if he can hold up throughout camp, will take on some of Nabers’s projected snaps, sharing those with Fields, the third-round draft pick.

Once Naber returns to action–worst–case scenario, he returns after the team’s Week 8 bye–the Giants are likely to continue distributing Nabers’s snaps between Beckham and Fields while bringing Nabers’ workload back up to speed.

Meanwhile, Hyatt, the team’s third-round pick in 2023 whose career has been hanging by a thread, will likely not be on this team come September.

At the other receiver spot, Slayton is expected to be back in time for camp, but if he’s not ready, the Giants can move Smith-Schuster or Austin to the outside as needed.

The slot receiver battle just became more interesting with Smith-Schuster and Austin likely to headline that battle.

While Berrios can give the Giants slot receiver snaps as well, he’s likely going to enter camp as the incumbent at returner, which could spell the end of Gipson’s time on the roster.

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