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Why would he go there? . . .
Jets offensive tackle Mekhi Becton has played one-half of football in the last two years due to knee injuries.
The Jets recently decided not to pick up his fifth-year option.
But with all this, he decided to take to Twitter the other day and tweet, “I. AM. A. LEFT. TACKLE!!!”
Why go there now?
People talk about culture all the time. Twitter can be Kryptonite to a team culture. A receiver complaining about his role last year on there, a DT going on there to complain about not having an offense and now Becton doing this?
And some would argue that Becton’s best position is right tackle.
However he did reportedly lose 50 pounds this off-season, so maybe that changes things.
At 380, right tackle was obviously a better spot for him, but at 340-350, where he seems to be now, maybe left tackle is the place.
But that is irrelevant.
A player who has missed essentially the last two years due to injuries, including a knee injury last year that might have been self-inflicted due to carrying too much weight on a surgical knee, some would argue he should pipe down, and just put his head down and work. Let his play do the talking.
And do you think Robert Saleh wanted to be talking about this on Saturday during the Jets rookie minicamp? All the drama about this player has to be annoying to Saleh.
Becton is probably concerned that playing right tackle will cost him some money, but really good right tackles can make great money – just ask Mike McGlinchey, Lane Johnson and Jack Conklin.
Former Jets QB Boomer Esiason ripped into Becton for his tweet.
“This fiasco of a player here with the Jets has been basically his own fault,” Esiason said on WFAN. “He almost ate himself out of the league. I appreciate that it dawned on him that his body will basically determine how much money he makes if he takes care of himself, so at least he seems to be growing up and doing that this year.
“To put this out there…is crap. You haven’t earned one thing since you’ve been here. You were a good rookie, and then you almost basically ate yourself out of the league. I’m sorry.”
But you know what, to people who grew up on social media, it can be kind of addicting, and sometimes they can’t help themselves – when they are feeling something, they’ve got to tweet it.
Like when Elijah Moore felt compelled to respond to an SNY Jets pregame show analyst who needed to point out he had no catches in the Jets’ win at Green Bay last season.
“If I say what I really wanna say . . . I’ll be the selfish guy . . . we winning. Grateful! Huge blessing! All I ever wanted. Bittersweet for me but I’ll be solid. So I’ll just stay quiet. Just know I don’t understand either,” Moore wrote on Twitter on October 17.
That was the beginning of the end for Moore’s Jets career. He was traded to Cleveland in the off-season.
The Jets did the right thing trading Moore who wasn’t who they thought he was.
And Saleh did the right thing putting Becton in his place to tell him to go just go “win” the left tackle job.
But some would argue Saleh needs to nip this rogue Twitter behavior by players in the bud, which could be quite challenging in this day and age.
May 8, 2023
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