Odell Beckham Jr. Reclaims No. 13 for Giants' Week 1 Showdown
Odell Beckham Jr. will wear No. 13 in Week 1. He spent the preseason in No. 3, and Yahoo Sports reports that Beckham will drop the temporary number for the Giants' Sunday Night Football home opener against the Dallas Cowboys.
The switch is a detail. It is not a small one.
A player does not change his number the week of a season opener by accident. No. 3 was the look of an audition, the number for an offseason of getting comfortable. No. 13 is the identifier Beckham wants attached to the game everyone will watch. The Giants host the Cowboys in an NFC East opener, and Big Blue View reports the Giants enter as underdogs. That makes this more than a jersey reveal. It is a chance for Beckham to alter the narrative in front of a prime-time audience.
The contrarian read is the correct one: the number on his back changes nothing about how the Cowboys defend him. Dallas has the same preseason tape in No. 3 that it will see in No. 13. The routes are the same. The speed is the same. If Beckham is the receiver the Giants think he is, the jersey is irrelevant. If he isn't, the jersey makes him easier to spot.
The real tell will be the first third down. Does the Giants' quarterback look toward No. 13 early? Does Beckham run his route with the same burst, or does he look like a receiver still learning the offense? I cannot answer that from a roster sheet, and neither can anyone else before kickoff.
What I can say is this: Beckham chose the number he wants to carry into a divisional game on national television. That is a declaration from a player who understands what Sunday means. My verdict: No. 13 becomes the most watched jersey in Week 1, but it only matters if Beckham makes a play that No. 3 would have made anyway.