June 13, 2024
During the offseason, we'll be taking a close look at Philadelphia Eagles players of interest who are currently on the roster but we may not know a lot about just yet. In this edition, we'll take a look at free agent offensive lineman addition Mekhi Becton.
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Becton is a mammoth 6'7, 364-pound tackle who was a first-round selection (11th overall) of the Jets in the 2020 NFL Draft. His career got off to a promising start when he played reasonably well as a rookie at left tackle. However, he suffered a knee injury Week 1 in 2021 and missed the rest of the season. In 2022, he moved to right tackle but was injured during training camp and missed the entire season. He then reportedly ballooned to around 400 pounds.
In 2023, he dropped weight and started in 16 games.
Awesome: #Jets Mekhi Becton, who weighted 400 pounds a couple of years ago, has transformed his body and slimmed down to about 350 pounds after some hard work. (ESPN)
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) April 2, 2023
Becton still has the potential to be a star tackle in the NFL with this right mindset. pic.twitter.com/HjVEsctEvF
PFF had him down for 12 sacks allowed and 16 (!) penalties in 2023.
The Eagles were expected (by me, anyway 🤷♂️) to draft an offensive tackle early in the 2024 NFL Draft, but that did not happen. Instead, they signed Becton a few days after the draft.
During OTAs, Becton played on the first-team offensive line at RT in place of an absent Lane Johnson. During a three-day minicamp last week, he was once again playing with the starters, this time at LG in place of an absent Landon Dickerson. In that respect, Becton could presently be considered something of a "sixth man" in many scenarios, excluding center. He might also have a chance to compete for the starting RG spot, currently projected to belong to Tyler Steen. He will be an interesting player to monitor during training camp.
For this exercise, I did not watch all 16 of Becton's games last season, because, I mean, I'd like to enjoy my summer a little bit. But I did watch his game against the Eagles, which was regarded by PFF as one of his worst games of the season. His performance was both concerning and intriguing.
In that game, Becton mostly faced off against Josh Sweat, who was playing very well at the time, in addition to some occasional matchups against Derek Barnett, Milton Williams, and Haason Reddick. In the video below, we'll cover Becton's concerns first, and then get to his upside.
• Becton displayed a solid anchor, which you would expect of such a massive player.
• He is so wide and he has such long arms that it's difficult to run around him, and he also showed the agility to handle speed around the edge. However, he is susceptible to inside counters because he cannot reverse his momentum once he commits to blocking the edge.
• He got guys to the ground six (!) times in pass pro against the Eagles, lol, and four different players. His power is obvious, and there's a lot to work with there.
• Becton is going to be taller than almost every edge rusher he's trying to block. There are a few times he gets his hands into Josh Sweat's face in the video above, but was fortunate not to be called for illegal hands to the face. To my surprise, he did not have any illegal hands to the face penalties called on him all season, but I still view that as a potential issue going forward. He needs to get his hands down to avoid those penalties, and more importantly to help out-leverage rushers.
• He was a little out of control in the run game. Again, once his momentum is going in one direction or another, it can be used against him. In pass pro, that's inside counters. In the run game, quicker interior linemen are going to occasionally get him to whiff and make tackles for loss in the backfield. However, if he gets his hands on you, most defensive linemen are going to move backwards.
• A move to guard makes sense. He's just so damn powerful.
As noted above, Becton committed 16 penalties, 12 of which were accepted (8 false starts, 3 holding, 1 unnecessary roughness), and per PFF he gave up 12 sacks. If Aaron Rodgers hadn't gotten hurt four snaps into the season, those numbers most assuredly would not be as high, but they're still obviously quite bad even with a built-in excuse.
And yet, he's a uniquely talented player because of his blend of size, power, and agility (for such a big guy). There are very clear flashes of that talent just in the one game we showed against the Eagles. The 2023 season was almost like a rookie season reboot for Becton since he missed the 2021 and 2022 seasons. It probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise that he gave up a bunch of sacks and committed a bunch of penalties. But if he's going to rejuvenate his career he absolutely must become more consistent.
Can he stay committed to football and keep his weight down? Will he continue to be open to playing positions other than LT? Can he take coaching from Jeff Stoutland like so many other successful Eagles linemen over the years could? If so, Becton has a legitimate chance to resurrect his career in Philly.
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