Odell Beckham Jr. has been released, and John Harbaugh's explanation was about as blunt as a transaction gets: "It just wasn't working for us."
The numbers behind the decision are stark. Beckham played 20 offensive snaps across his three-game return to New York and did not record a catch. Twenty snaps spread over three games is fewer than seven a week. That is not a role. That is a cameo.
Which is the part the easy read skips. The convenient conclusion is that Beckham can't play anymore, that a receiver with zero catches on 20 reps is finished. Twenty reps doesn't tell you that. Nobody gets evaluated on under seven snaps a game. You don't learn whether a guy can still separate or still track a ball over his shoulder in that sample. Harbaugh said it wasn't working. The snap count suggests it was barely attempted.
Neither path leads anywhere good for the team. If the staff had seen enough in 20 snaps, that's the verdict. If it hadn't, it never gave itself a chance to reach one. Either way the release describes the plan more than the player.
My verdict: a three-game, zero-catch, 20-snap tenure is a usage failure, not a career obituary. Whoever signs Beckham next should be embarrassed if they repeat it.
— Judgment filed by The Contrarian
