The Packers are making a big move in signing Mekhi Becton, but then again, every move involving Becton is big. He’s a massive human being even in a game dominated by other massive human beings.
That’s the book on Becton: he’s monstrously big, but the eternally open question is whether or not he can parlay that size into effective work on the offensive line. It worked out at times with the New York Jets. It worked wonderfully well for the Philadelphia Eagles. It failed in spectacular fashion with the Los
Angeles Chargers. What will the Packers’ phase of Becton’s career hold?
Becton was a three-year starter for the Louisville Cardinals, ending his career having appeared in 35 games over three seasons. Though he got the ultimate offensive line honor in 2018 (a specially called big man touchdown play), his 2019 effort earned him the biggest accolade of his career: a first-team All-ACC nod for his work in the Cardinals’ 8-5 season.
Declaring early for the 2020 NFL Draft, Becton was a much-debated prospect. Though his athleticism and physical upside was never in doubt (he posted a 9.85 Relative Athletic Score), scouts were split on his technical abilities. Bleacher Report called him “the biggest boom-or-bust prospect in the 2020 draft class” for that reason, while Pro Football Network questioned whether or not he had the foot speed to make it as a left tackle in the NFL.
But he had his backers, too, preeminent draft scout Dane Brugler of The Athletic among them. He correctly predicted Becton would land with the New York Jets, who took him with the 11th overall selection, banking on his athletic ability to overcome whatever sloppy tendencies might exist in his game.
Early on, Brugler looked prescient. Becton appeared in 14 games as a rookie, starting 13 — all at left tackle — and he graded out fairly well, too. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the 30th best tackle (out of 60) to play at least 500 snaps in 2020. That’s not a world-beating ranking, but it’s solid enough for a rookie going against NFL athletes for the first time.
Unfortunately, that would be the high point for Becton’s Jets career. An early season injury in practice limited him to a single game in 2021, and an avulsion fracture in 2022 ended his season in training camp. Then, in 2023, Becton had a front row seat to Aaron Rodgers’ torn Achilles tendon. (He wasn’t to blame, having switched to right tackle by that point, but was one of the two players closest to Rodgers when it happened.) Predictably, Rodgers’ injury tanked the Jets’ season, and Becton left town the next offseason, a free agent for the first time in his NFL career.
He’d land in about the best possible situation, signing with the Philadelphia Eagles and beginning the comeback arc of his career. Originally signed as a swing tackle option, an injury to guard Tyler Steen opened the door at right guard, and Becton stepped through. The move might not have happened had the Eagles’ offensive line coach not been Jeff Stoutland, who’d tended toward playing bigger-than-average players at guard. Though initially skeptical, having never played guard before, Becton embraced the move and thrived.
“I’m having fun learning as much as I can about what Stout [Jeff Stoutland] wants from us. He pushes us to be the best, to bring out the best in us. That’s what I want,” Becton said.
His size, atypical at guard, was an asset. Center Cam Jurgens, facing the tall task of replacing Jason Kelce, loved having Becton next to him at guard.
“Mekhi’s got long arms, insanely long arms and he’s able to use them really well,” Jurgens said. “It’s super helpful, especially when you’re going into the run game and he’s able to put those long arms on people and keep people at a distance.”
Counting playoffs, he’d play 1,158 snaps at guard for the Eagles across 19 games, starting every single one. That included two wins over the Packers and, even more importantly, a Super Bowl championship. And his mass paid dividends in the ground game; he posted a run blocking grade of 70.3 in 2024, per PFF — higher than any of the guards the Packers played that year, and higher than that of Aaron Banks, for that matter, then a member of the San Francisco 49ers.
Becton parlayed his solid season and Super Bowl title into a two-year, $20 million contract with the Los Angeles Chargers, where things promptly fell apart again. Becton played 794 snaps in 15 games (with 14 starts), but posted career-worst grades overall, as a pass blocker, and as a run blocker. The Chargers cut him this spring, saving $9.7 million against the cap in the process.
However, there’s more to the story of his 2025 season. The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman reports Becton was dealing with an undiagnosed torn labrum in Los Angeles, which required surgery this past March, which may explain both why he played so poorly last year and why nobody showed any interest in him in the first waves of free agency. It’s worth noting, though, that Belton never appeared on the injury report with a designation tied to his shoulder; it was only knee issues and a concussion that popped up during the course of the season. I’m not saying Becton wasn’t hurt, for the record, but rather that we should have a healthy grain of salt when looking to the injury as a potential factor in his poor play.
Becton is also reportedly down to 345 pounds, which would be the lightest listed weight of his career, but still heavier than any other player on the Packers’ offensive line. The Packers have consciously tried to get bigger up front over the past couple of seasons, and if that’s still the goal, you can’t do much better than Becton, even at a lighter weight.
Our Justis Mosqueda identified Becton as a potential cap casualty to watch back in March, and his prognostication has ultimately come to pass. Whether or not the former first round pick can resurrect the offensive line remains to be seen, but as with the Laken Tomlinson signing, the Packers aren’t exactly in a position to turn down any help.
