On Saturday evening, the NFL announced that New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has been named the 2014 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year. In only 12 games played on the season, the 12th overall pick out of LSU hauled in 91 receptions on 130 targets for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns. His 108.8 receiving yards per game led the NFL.
While he did have a solid start to his NFL career, Beckham did not really burst on to the scene until the Giants’ week 12 Sunday Night Football match-up against the Dallas Cowboys. In that primetime game, Beckham had 10 receptions for 146 yards and two touchdowns.
One of the scores was easily the most impressive catch of the year as Beckham reached up and snagged a pass from Eli Manning, and fell in to the end-zone for a 43-yard touchdown. The Giants fell to the Cowboys on that night by a score of 31-28, but Beckham became an overnight sensation in front of a nationwide audience.
From that Dallas game on, opposing defenses were pretty much unable to cover Beckham. In the Giants’ last six games of the season, Beckham finished with a combined 60 receptions for 842 yards and nine touchdowns. Those would have been good numbers for a receiver to put up throughout the entire season.
The Giants finished 6-10 on the season, and clearly have many holes to fill throughout their roster. That being said, Beckham is one of the most dynamic young players in the league, and is an incredible talent for the Giants to build their team around. He is an obvious and very well deserved choice as Offensive Rookie of the Year.