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Perhaps this shouldn’t have come as a
big surprise.
Talking about Mekhi Becton going down in practice today with a knee issue.
I’m not being callous, just dealing with the reality of the situation. On the first day of camp, you could see that he wasn’t comfortable with the knee he hurt last year. I wrote about it that day. From my perspective, he wasn’t just dealing with heat issues that day, but that knee seemed to be bothering him. Look, I could be wrong, but that is what I observed.
And then a few days later, he started to wear a bulky brace on that right knee.
Then at the scrimmage on Saturday, he hardly played during the team part of practice.
You would think almost a year removed from the injury, which wasn’t considered a season-ending injury, it has to be disconcerting to the team brass that he’s still struggling with this.
Some might say he’s putting too much stress on the knee with all the weight he carries.
Some might say if he had spent the entire off-season with the team, and spent that time rehabbing and conditioning under the guidance of the Jets sports performance staff, the knee would have been further along when camp started.
He chose to work out in Texas under Duke Manyweather, who isn’t a conditioning coach, and not a physical therapist, but an offensive line technique guru.
Maybe Becton could have been in New Jersey with the team the entire off-season, and they could have given birth at nearby Morristown Medical Center, perhaps the best hospital in the state.
Until he got shut down by the PC police, Robert Saleh told us how he really feels at a spring press conference.
On May 1, he looked at the camera and said to Becton: “We’d love you back here, buddy! Come on. We’ll take care of you.”
But then, after that, Saleh started going with the baby narrative as to why the player wasn’t there.
Saleh drops these truth bombs now and then, where he gives us a little glimpse into behind-the-scenes thinking.
Like at the NFL owner’s meeting in late February, when he said about Zach Wilson: “Love to see Zach own the playbook at a faster clip.”
Awesome no-filter quote.
But we all know coaches have to bite their tongue on a lot of stuff in press conferences. They really don’t have a choice. You can’t be dropping truth bombs all the time and give reporters grist for the mill and risk losing the player (a lot of guys are real sensitive these days), by calling them out in the press.
But to me, Saleh showed his true feelings about Becton missing the off-season program (aside from the mandatory minicamp), in that clip.
Seriously, how can anybody with a modicum of common sense, say it’s a good idea for a 23-year-old player, coming off a knee injury, with conditioning issues, not to show up for the off-season program after just his second season?
But in closing, let’s me say, that watching camp from the beginning, it looked like Becton’s knee was bothering him all camp, and finally today, he went down while blocking a defensive end.
So when I say this isn’t a surprise, I’m not saying that in a flippant fashion, just based on observations from the beginning of camp, and the fact that he started to wear the bulky brace a few days ago. He was not wearing that early in camp.
If Becton is out for a while, with Conor McDermott also out with what looks like a high ankle sprain, Chuma Edoga will likely be the right tackle.
Edoga is a little bit of an enigma. He is perfect for the Jets’ zone blocking scheme. I mean perfect. He’s athletic, light on his feet, long arms and pulls well. Remember, this guy was a five-star recruit out of Atlanta that all the big problems wanted, and he went to USC. He has a lot of talent, but just hasn’t been able to put it all together with the Jets since joining the team as a third-round pick in 2019 draft. If this guy finally puts it all together, he could be very good. He just needs to be more consistent.
Also in the mix while Becton is out is 2022 fourth-round pick Max Mitchell, but I don’t think they want to rush him, a few months removed from playing the likes of Texas State and Georgia State.
August 8, 2022
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