There was a point, even this season, that a marriage between Odell Beckham Jr. and the Kansas City Chiefs would have made sense—at least more of it. Now? Not so much.
They say, "Never say never," but the truth is that no one in Chiefs Kingdom should expect general manager Brett Veach to stand on a desk and rally for the team to find the room on the roster and in the budget to add Beckham at this point.
How did we end up even talking about this? The interest has been there before. But we'll get to that in the second.
The Miami Dolphins decided to waive Beckham on Friday given the clear lack of postseason hopes for the Fins this year and the vet status of Beckham. As a player who has only made a catch in five games this season (for 55 total yards), it's not as if the Dolphins are excited to see what Beckham will add to their future down the stretch or anything.
The #Dolphins are waiving WR Odell Beckham Jr., per NFL Network. Both sides agreed a parting of ways would be beneficial.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 13, 2024
OBJ has 9 catches for 55 yards on the season. pic.twitter.com/L89l4nRlp2
You might recall that rumors from ESPN's Jeremy Fowler had the Chiefs and Buffalo Bills squarely in the middle of the chase to add Beckham. The Fins won with a single-season offer of $8 million—more than Marquise Brown ended up receiving from K.C.
It was, however, the second consecutive offseason in which the Chiefs were tied to Beckham. Before that, he went with the Baltimore Ravens and put up a solid season in a run-first offense with other pass-catching options, which might have been why the Chiefs sniffed around again this offseason.
Even before that, the Chiefs were rumored to be interested in Beckham at the NFL's trade deadline as far back as 2022.
Beckham looked like a more likely addition this last spring in throes of the Rashee Rice drama and with Xavier Worthy as raw as ever. While Rice was lost for the season anyway, the Chiefs bounced back with in-season moves already with the trade for DeAndre Hopkins and the signing of JuJu Smith-Schuster.
In other words, Beckham could have been a move made last year or at several points earlier this year. But with four weeks left, the Chiefs are getting Hollywood Brown back to a mix that already has an emerging Worthy (who led WRs in receiving yards on Sunday) to go with the aforementioned vets (and Justin Watson).
Beckham will likely find a home with someone. He's just 32 and showed enough last season to inspire belief that he's not finished yet. But the Chiefs might be done flirting with Beckham after a couple of seasons of rumors and smoke.