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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Odell Beckham promised that the money won't change him -- a vow made by many newly enriched players before. He swore he'll be the same player, perhaps even greater, and driven more than ever.

But the Giants need more than that for their $95 million. They need Beckham to be a leader. They need him to make the Giants his team.

Because like it or not, that's what it is now. They became Beckham's team the moment he signed his five-year, $95 million contract with $65 million guaranteed. Yes, Eli Manning's presence still looms large, but the quarterback is in the final stages of his wonderful career. Beckham is only 25. His star is still rising. He's the face of the franchise.

And as if this wasn't clear before the big money, he's now absolutely the one everyone will watch.

And with all that -- not to mention those enormous checks he'll be cashing -- comes great responsibility. The Giants have made that perfectly clear. They expect no more controversies. No more on-field outbursts. No more nonsense of any kind.

That's what the Giants need from him to really make this investment pay off.

"I think he's matured quite a bit," Giants co-owner John Mara said on Tuesday. "I think that stuff is hopefully in the past. I think he's ready to go on and be the type of player and citizen we expect him to be. And I think he will be."

This is the truth: If Mara wasn't convinced of that, Beckham would not have gotten this contract. It doesn't matter that he's a transcendent star or that he feels like a lock for 90 catches, 1,300 yards and 10 touchdowns every season. For all the good he has done for the Giants offensively, he took too much away from them with non-football stuff.

And they were tired of it. Whether it was the on-field eruptions, silly and sometimes offensive touchdown celebrations, viral videos, ill-fated pre-playoff trips to Miami, or that infamous video with the aspiring model, the pepperoni pizza and something that looked like drugs with him in a bed, the Giants had seen and heard enough back in March. And even though Mara said Tuesday there was only a "very, very small chance" that they would've jettisoned Beckham when teams began asking if the Giants were willing to trade him, those chances would've become much larger if Beckham hadn't quickly matured.

But he did. He seemed humbled. He showed up for at least part of the offseason program. He didn't lash out at the Giants. He didn't hold out from camp. He built a strong relationship with his new coach. Those things, which can accurately be described as being just part of the job for a professional, weren't a given with Beckham. But he did it. He showed the Giants' bosses what he they wanted to see.

Now they need more. Because more than ever, people will be watching Beckham -- and not just to see if he can still be the best receiver in football. They will be watching his antics, his actions and his Instagram feed. They'll be watching to see if his new-found maturity was more than just a five-month thing.

"I'm growing up," Beckham said. "I won't say I'm proud of everything that's ever happened. But I'm able to take everything that's happened for me and make myself into a man and learn from those mistakes and be able to look myself in the mirror and have to deal with those things. It wasn't the best thing to happen to me to date, but what I got to learn and take and grow from, was everything that I needed in my life and now I'm able to take that and keep going forward and just be the best me that I can be."

If he can, that will be a very good thing for the Giants. He has long been known as a good teammate and a tireless worker. Now he can be a good example too. He can be a player the Giants are proud to have out front as a symbol of their team instead of star who has them secretly crossing their fingers that he won't implode.

Can they count on that? To be fair, even they're not sure, even they're a bit more confident about it than they were before.

"He's always going to be a high energy guy, he's always going to be an emotional guy," Mara said. "You just sort of hope that he keeps those emotions in check. I'm sure there's going to be some incidents where he gets excited, just hopefully he'll keep it within the grounds of not incurring a penalty or doing anything else that's going to embarrsss him.

"You know, he's 25," Mara added. "I think he's moving in the right direction."

With all that money, he really needs to grow up and get to that destination quick.

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