The Miami Dolphins will be coming into the 2024 NFL season without one of their best stars in Odell Beckham Jr., who is slated to miss at least the first four games of the season as he is set on the physically unable to perform list in the team heading into the regular season. It does seem that the team will have to come up with bigger strides in their squad while they wait their star to come back.

Beckham has been one of the best wide receivers in the game over the years, but due to an undisclosed injury, the Dolphins have not fielded him since last March. He was signed by the team to fill in their need for a reserve wide receiver behind the likes of Tyreek Hill and Jayden Waddle. Of course, the injuries have prevented the trio from being the pass-catching threat that they were expected to be for the Dolphins.

Considering that the Dolphins will wait him out, it is easy to expect that Beckham will have bigger chances to prove his worth in the game and come up with a promising run should he ever take to the field. At this point, there are hopes that Beckham will come back to his winning form soon.

A Big Loss to Begin the Season

There are high expectations that Beckham would play alongside the catching duo of the team with the hopes of igniting their start to the NFL season. This latest development means that Beckham will not be making it to the cut for at least a month, and some would even say that the wide receiver’s health is a major concern that can affect their future in the long run.

Injuries have taken him out of the game more than once. Beckham is a promising WR who tallied 4,122 receiving yards from 2014 to 2016, which is the third-most by an active NFL player in their first three seasons. However, Beckham has since tallied 3,810 in six seasons, and he did not even surpass the 1,000-yard mark since 2019.

That statistical decline has been due to his injuries. Beckham fractured his left ankle after four games in 2017 and later had a torn ACL in 2020. The wide receiver had the same injury by the end of the Super Bowl in the 2021 season. So far, Beckham’s 565 yards in 2023 is the highest he’s ever tallied since 2019.

The Honest Truth

According to multiple sources, the Dolphins don’t actually believe that Beckham’s injury is quite a cause of concern, but the fact that he doesn’t start this season with the rest of the receiving unit is not ideal for a team that is hoping to make a playoff push. Even Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa has to accept the hard, honest truth about it.

"I've been able to hang out with him a good amount of times," Tagovailoa said of Beckham. "Cool dude, 100%. But does our relationship translate on the field? I couldn't tell you, because I haven't gotten reps with him and that's just the honest truth."

While there aren’t a lot of talks as to how the Dolphins will actually try and replace him into the season, it does seem that they do not really have much of a choice as receiver River Cracaft was also listed on the injured reserve heading into the NFL’s cutdown deadline.