As the man Odell Beckham Jr. once invited to the Pro Bowl for being such a reliable mentor and advocate, Nelson Stewart understands the receiver like few others in his orbit. So Beckham’s high school coach seemed a good person to handicap the slow-paced race for the player’s considerable services. 

Dallas, Buffalo, Kansas City, San Francisco and the New York Football Giants. Stewart was asked Monday to put 10 bucks on one of those teams, or on any other that might emerge. 

“If I’m a betting man right now,” Stewart told The Post, “I’d flip a coin between New York and Dallas. It’s tight. But of all the teams I’ve heard about, the one that really resonates a little bit more is New York. 

“And you can certainly say the Giants have the most intrigue with Odell’s old coach.” 

That’s the way it should be at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, the home office of the Manning family dynasty, and the place where Stewart tutors Arch Manning now and tutored Odell Beckham Jr. then. Eli Manning, a Newman grad, won two Super Bowl MVPs for the Giants. Beckham, a Newman grad, became the fastest player ever to 200 catches and 3,000 yards for the Giants. So there are sentimental feelings for Big Blue in the bayou. 

But up in the New Jersey swamplands, this doesn’t need to be about family reunions or the circle of life or anything other than the pursuit of more favorable postseason odds. The Giants should sign Beckham because he makes them better, and because he might help them win a playoff game or two on the NFC side of the tournament draw that looks wide open. 

The Giants are 7-2, with a strong chance to get to 8-2 at Detroit’s expense. It’s a credit to the players, and to rookie coach Brian Daboll and rookie general manager Joe Schoen, that they are winning games in a wide receivers league without wide receivers. If the season ended today, the Giants would claim the fifth seed and play at Tampa Bay in the first round. 

Would they have a better shot at wrecking yet another Brady postseason with Beckham, or without him? 

That one’s easier than the ball Kenny Golladay just dropped against Houston. 

Stewart said Beckham has added upper-body muscle and is bigger and stronger than he’s ever been. Schoen would have to get creative to make a deal align with his salary cap realities, but this free agent is worth the hassle for this season and beyond. He proved that last year with the Rams by catching nine passes for 113 yards on a bad knee in the NFC Championship game, and by catching two passes for 52 yards and a touchdown in the Super Bowl before blowing out that knee. 

Beckham has been rehabbing from surgery and, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, hopes to sign with someone by the end of the month. The Giants can keep their former first-round pick away from Dallas by adding him for the final five or so games. Of greater consequence, they can add a difference-maker who would eliminate the need for Saquon Barkley to run the ball 35 times, and who would allow Daniel Jones to throw it more than 17 times. 

The Giants didn’t give Barkley or Jones new contracts during the bye week, or new weapons at the trade deadline. The running back and quarterback have been busting their butts every week, so the least the Giants can do is reward them with a little help that won’t cost Schoen any draft capital. 

Barkley has effectively offered to cover Beckham’s first-class ticket from LAX to Newark. He attended the receiver’s 30th birthday party in Los Angeles and said a Beckham signing would represent “a great story to come back to a place where you were at before and … come here with the right mindset and be a leader and be the type of player he can be for this team.” 

Down in New Orleans, Stewart was eager to second that motion. 

“Odell loved his time in New York,” his former coach said. He loved it up until the 2019 day when the Giants canceled his high-maintenance act — best defined by his fight with, and marriage proposal to, a kicking net — and dealt him to Cleveland months after giving him a five-year, $95 million deal. 

“His end in New York was abrupt at a time of turmoil, and it had a cloudiness to it,” Stewart said. “I think to go back to where it all started would be amazing for Odell. He’s grown up a lot, he’s grounded and he loves being a dad. He’s just in a great spot now. 

“To me New York is a win-win.” 

The Giants should make a serious bid to sign Beckham and, if need be, stretch their definition of a reasonable offer to get it done. If the receiver adds just one impactful play per game, that could be the difference between missing the playoffs altogether and making an improbable run to the second or third round. 

So yes, the Giants should return O-B-J to his old J-O-B.