Bills' AFC East rival signs former All-Pro WR Odell Beckham Jr.

The lives of the Buffalo Bills' defensive backs just got (marginally) more difficult.

The Miami Dolphins, who led the AFC East throughout much of the 2023 NFL season before Buffalo re-cemented its crown with a Week 18 win at Hard Rock Stadium, have signed three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to a one-year contract. The deal is worth up to $8.25 million, per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero.

Beckham Jr., whose name was once heavily linked to the Bills, is no stranger to the news cycle, as there was a significant stretch just a few years ago when the former LSU Tiger was one of the faces of the NFL. He burst onto the scene in his rookie year, catching 91 passes for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns in a 2014 NFL season in which he played in just 12 games. This would kick off a dominant three-year stretch in which the New York Giant caught a total of 288 passes for 4,122 yards and 35 touchdowns, a stint in which he was almost universally viewed as one of the most dominant wide receivers in football.

Beckham Jr.’s Hall of Fame trajectory would face a detour in the 2017 NFL season, as he fractured his left ankle in a Week 5 contest with the Los Angeles Chargers and would miss the rest of the campaign. He bounced back with another 1,000-yard season in 2018 but was traded to the Cleveland Browns that offseason, leaving the Big Apple for the sunny shores of Lake Erie.

Cleveland hoped to pair Beckham Jr. with presumptive franchise quarterback Baker Mayfield, but as is generally the case with the Browns, plans did not pan out. Injuries prevented him from consistently seeing the field in Cleveland; throughout parts of three years with the Browns, he caught 114 passes for 1,586 yards and seven touchdowns.

The Browns waived Beckham Jr. in November of 2022 following a bizarre social media campaign spearheaded by his father to get him out of Cleveland; he signed with the Los Angeles Rams days later, flashing down the stretch and helping the team secure a Super Bowl LVI championship. Many feel as though Beckham Jr., who caught two passes for 52 yards and a score in the game before tearing his ACL, was en route to winning Super Bowl MVP before suffering his injury.

Beckham Jr. missed the entire 2022 campaign rehabbing his ailment, spending the 2023 season with the Baltimore Ravens. He caught 35 passes for 565 yards throughout the season, his worst statistical outing in a season in which he played more than 10 games for a single team.

Beckham Jr., now 31, is objectively talented—he’s just not the dominant wide receiver he once was. This isn’t a big deal in Miami, however, as he joins a receiving corps headlined by speedy game-breakers like Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. The two-time All-Pro will be a complementary piece in South Beach, at this point of his career, it’s difficult to imagine a more advantageous situation for him than the one present with head coach Mike McDaniel in Miami.

The former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year isn’t necessarily a player that Buffalo will have to gameplan around during its two matchups with the Dolphins next season, but he’ll add an interesting wrinkle to a potent Miami offense that the Bills have, admittedly, fared well against in the past; the Dolphins scored just 20 and 14 points, respectively, in their Week 4 and Week 18 losses to Buffalo last season.