Odell Beckham Jr. said he spoke with his New York Giants teammates hours before Sunday's 33-31

loss to the Carolina Panthers to clear the air over comments he made last week.Beckham had talked about quarterback Eli Manning and why the team isn't throwing the ball farther downfield and playing with more energy. He said after the game that "sometimes stuff comes off the wrong way" and that "words can be portrayed in any kind of light."But the 25-year-old receiver was quick to add he doesn't regret anything he said."It took that for us to come together as a team like we did today http://www.newyorkgiantsteamonline.com/b.j.-hill-jersey , I can take that every single time," Beckham said.The Giants lost on a 63-yard field goal by Carolina's Graham Gano with 1 second remaining after battling back to erase an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit.When asked last week if there was an issue at quarterback, Beckham told ESPN, "I don't know. Like I said, I feel like he's not going to get out the pocket. He's not — we know Eli's not running it. But is it a matter of time issue?"He also said, "How come we can't throw the ball for more than 20 yards? How come we don't attempt or try to throw the ball for more than 20 yards? Those are questions that we have to figure out, but for now I would say it's our heart, it's our energy."Beckham had easily his best game of the season Sunday with eight catches for 131 yards and a touchdown. He also threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to running back Saquon Barkley after receiving a lateral from Manning.The Giants had completed only two passes of 30 yards or more this season entering Sunday, and they have only nine passes of 20 yards or greater. They had six pass plays of longer than 20 yards against the Panthers, including Beckham's 33-yard touchdown catch from Manning.Beckham said he texted coach Pat Shurmur to ask if he could address his teammates."It had been on my heart since the Dallas game, honestly," Beckham said. "All the stuff that had built up inside, it came out in the wrong way. ... If we're not all on the same page, if it's not all authentic and real, and if we can't understand each other, there will always be miscommunication."Manning downplayed Beckham's comments after the game, saying he and Beckham "have a great relationship" and "our mindset will be everybody stay focused on beating Philadelphia (on Thursday night)."Shurmur said he addressed the issue with Beckham and the team — and made it clear he wants to get past it all."I publicly declared that I didn't agree with his comments and I asked anybody that was interested if they wanted clarification (to) go to Odell because he's a big man," Shurmur said. "Now, I'm not going to give the public a pound of flesh on this, all right? That would make me small, not strong. And these are the kind of things, in my opinion, when we have the locker room that we have that will help galvanize them because the locker room took care of it."Shurmur added that he is "done" addressing the issue Womens Riley Dixon Jersey , saying "let's talk football, not drama."Beckham said he felt the need to speak up last week because he's trying to be a leader."I'm in a position I've never been in," Beckham said. "I'm trying to grow, I'm learning on the way, on the fly, but I'm proud of where we went today. ... We kept fighting, kept fighting, and kept fighting. That's all I could ask for."What options do the Giants have in the return game? The New York Giants have not gotten a lot out of Hunter Sharp and Kalif Raymond on punt and kickoff returns through two preseason games.Return Game ComparisonPlayerPunt ReturnsAvg.LongTDsKickoff ReturnsAvg.LongPlayerPunt ReturnsAvg.LongTDsKickoff ReturnsAvg.LongThe lack of explosive plays is one thing. Sharp’s issues with ball security against the Detroit Lions, a muffed punt and a fumble, exacerbated the Giants’ dilemma. Who is going to return kickoffs and punts?“Coach Pat Shurmur said this week that the Giants are “a little bit unsettled” at that spot.“We have guys back there working, we’ll just play It out through the preseason and see where it goes,” Shurmur said.The preferenceSharp or Raymond grabs the job — In each of the first two preseason games, Sharp returned kicks in the first half and Raymond in the second. The pair might be in competition for one wide receiver/return man job on the 53-man roster. Playing for the Giants and Denver Broncos last season, Sharp averaged 9.3 yards on eight punt returns and had a 19-yard kickoff return. Before his bout with the dropsies last week, Sharp had probably been looked at as the more reliable of the two when it came to ball security.In 12 games over two seasons with the Broncos, Giants and New York Jets Raymond has averaged 7.2 yards on 29 punt returns and 20.4 yards on 20 kickoff returns. The problem is he has fumbled seven of those returns, or 24.2 percent of them. Both guys have a lot to prove before the Giants trust either of them with the return job.The nuclear optionLet Odell Beckham Jr. and Saquon Barkley do it ... maybe even Sterling Shepard — All three have returned kicks in the past, and have done at least some work returning kicks this summer. Beckham and Shepard, in fact, work with the return teams on a regular basis.Letting the two star players handle returns would, of course, set off a frenzy of “remember what happened to Jason Sehorn” alarm bells from Giants fans. Well, yes Authentic Dalvin Tomlinson Jersey , we remember. Shurmur wasn’t the coach then, and bringing up the Sehorn discussion with him would be pointless. I seriously doubt that the Giants want to see any of these three players handling returns on any sort of regular basis. Maybe not at all.Could you really blame Shurmur, though, if he put Beckham back to return a punt or Barkley a kickoff late in a close game that the Giants needed to win? In my view, I could not. The job of the coach is to win, and putting your best players in positions to make impact plays at important times gives you a better chance to do that. Injury risk or not, I would be OK with the Giants using Beckham and Barkley in critical situations.By the way, I have to add this. During practices this summer I have watched Beckham return a number of kickoffs. Like a lot of other things, it just looks different — faster and more explosive — when he does it in comparison to anyone else.Other possibilitiesCody Latimer — The wide receiver did some kickoff returning with the Denver Broncos, averaging 24.4 yards on 18 returns over four seasons. He returned eight kickoffs in each of the past two seasons. Latimer has seldom worked as a returner this summer, but did field kickoffs during Tuesday’s practice. Perhaps that is a harbinger of things to come.Travis Rudolph — He can return kickoffs and punts, but really seems to lack the big-play explosiveness you would like from a returner. Rudolph averaged 2.7 yards on three punt returns last preseason and 22.0 yards on three kickoff returns.Sterling Shepard — I mentioned him above. He averaged 7.4 yards on 30 punt returns at Oklahoma. Shepard has worked consistently this summer with both the punt and kickoff return groups.Grant Haley — The rookie cornerback averaged 20.6 yards per return on 32 returns as a freshman at Penn State. He has not returned kicks since, and to my recollection has not gotten any reps doing so with the Giants.Donte Deayon — The former coaching staff gave the 5-foot-9, 163-pound Deayon a look as a return man last preseason. He had three punt returns for a total of 1 yard averaged 19.5 yards on a pair of kickoff returns. Deayon returned punts at Boise State, averaging 8.4 yards per return on 30 attempts.Mike Jones — The recently re-signed rookie cornerback averaged 22.2 yards on kickoff returns and 5.6 yards on punt returns for Temple in 2017. In 2016, playing for North Carolina Central in the FCS, Jones averaged an explosive 22.0 yards per punt return with two touchdowns. Jones, to my knowledge, has yet to get any looks with the Giants as a return man. The problem with the idea of keeping Jones as a returner is that we saw him play cornerback on Friday vs. the Detroit Lions in the fourth quarter, when he committed two penalties and gave up catches on all three targets where he did not commit a penalty. To keep him for returns, the Giants would have to cut a more deserving cornerback. The cornerback depth is already iffy.Waivers/free agency — There does not appear to be an established return man available right now. That could change after the final preseason game when teams make cuts to reach the 53-man roster limit. If the Giants remain “unsettled” in the return game once the preseason concludes, perhaps their 2018 return man is currently on someone else’s roster.