Why less has been more for the Baltimore Ravens and Odell Beckham

Through about eight weeks of the season, Odell Beckham had a bad year. Injuries occurred, but he was not making contested catches; he was off with Lamar Jackson, and the Baltimore Ravens passing offense was struggling. The issues were highlighted in a zero-catch, zero-yard performance against the Arizona Cardinals in what looked like a bounce-back spot. 

The Baltimore Ravens are getting more out of Odell Beckham

It turned out that that was just a bottoming-out spot. Since then, Beckham has played much better. One reason is that he has played much less. 

After the Arizona game, the Ravens took him from 56% of the snaps to 46%. That was the last time he played over 55% of the snaps. Since then, he has been closer to 40%, with the exception of playing 52% in week 14 coming out of the bye. 

Whether it was a reset, recharger, or a wake-up call, Beckham took it. He has been much better. 

Beckham was averaging 27 yards per game in the first six games with the Ravens and is up to 68 yards per game in the five games since then. He has 343 yards on 96 routes and a 3.57 yards-per-route run rate. Meanwhile, in the first six games, he had 162 yards and 1.15 yards per route run.

All of that, while going from 66% of the routes run to 49%. Still, his target rate when he does run routes has gone up from 18% to 30%. So, they are not wasting him on the snaps where he is not getting the ball, and when he is on the field, he is making big plays happen.

As noted, he jumped from 32.4% of the snaps before the bye week to 52.8% of the snaps in their most recent win. Did the reset happen and now we may see Becham get a lot more work as we head into the playoff run? That would upgrade this offense in a big way.