The Ravens entered Week 5 with a rather nice outlook judging by their injury report. They were welcoming a bunch of top-tier performers and some locker-room leaders. That, however, didn't seem to work for them once the ball got rolling on Sunday.
Baltimore dropped their game (and more than a few passes) against the Steelers 17-10 in Week 5 and fell behind Pittsburgh in the AFC North even though both share the same 3-2 record.
One of the most glaring underperformers of the day, making his return after missing the last two games and after having signed a $15-million deal with the franchise last spring, was veteran WR Odell Beckham Jr.
Beckham ran 29 routes while appearing on 37 of the Ravens' 70 offensive snaps on Sunday, according to Pro Football Focus charting. OBJ was targeted a reasonable four times but all he could do was grab a couple of those passes for a meager 13 yards and a ground-level-low 3.2 yards per target average.
Also, Beckham was targeted in the pass that led to Lamar Jackson's lone interception on the day, inside the end zone, and he didn't do much (as far as he could have) to help his quarterback avoid that pick.
That targeted interception, however, was just the cherry on top of an afternoon that drew the ire of many Baltimore Ravens fans who seem to be starting to get a little bit angry with the veteran wide receiver.
Beckham was nicely covered by rookie Joey Porter Jr. and Lamar could have looked elsewhere (Jackson said he was "just trying to give my boy a shot"). Beckham, that said, had missed a few snaps earlier in the game probably load-managing his injured ankle so Lamar was just only trying to hand OBJ something at the end of the day. Can't blame the quarterback entirely.
OBJ didn't start the game with the rest of the offensive starters and it took him a while to finally pop up on the LOS. He left the game midway through the game before returning later. All of that made some folks on X (formerly known as Twitter) share some feelings.
The list is endless and we could go on forever, but you get the idea.
As long as Beckham cannot stay on the field on a snap-by-snap basis, he'd be a hobbling, wasted, roster spot. As long as defenses doesn't consider Beckham a true offensive weapon and a menace, he's not going to do anything of substance to help the Ravens win games.
The problem is, of course, that Baltimore spent $15 million in adding him to the fold and the organization, if only out of shame, will never cut ties with him this season or, most probably, throughout the full season--no matter the end product.
We are the first ones who want Odell back in full fitness, playing at the peak of his powers, and thriving in Baltimore grabbing passes tossed by the mighty Lamar Jackson. Sadly, it's looking more and more like that will never happen.